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Pandita Ramabai 
Sarasvati 

Pioneer in the Movement for the Educa- 
tion of the Child-widow of India 



By 
CLEMENTINA BUTLER 

Chairman Executive Committee American 
Ramabai Association 




New York Chicago 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1922, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 






New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago : 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 

FEB 19 "23 

©CU69S352 



Introduction 

A WIDOW without resources, a Hindu widow 
burdened with the handicap of reUgious 
fanaticism and superstition which weighed 
down any aspirations for betterment, and hedged 
about in all avenues of effort, and yet a valiant 
spirit which, recognizing a vision and a command, 
went forth for its fulfillment. This was Pandita 
Ramabai, the courageous soul who first saw the 
crying need of the child- widow, who realized the 
economic loss to the nation of setting apart a 
great class by ostracism to enforced inaction; the 
one who realized the right of the child to live, to 
work, and to have development of her powers in 
spite of the supposed curse of the gods upon her 
life. 

It was in 1886 that this little woman, coming 
unknown and unsupported save by her own 
strength of conviction, landed on these shores and 
made her appeal for the child-widow of India. 
Modern, bustling America hardly knew that such 
a class existed, and the missionary folk who did 
know were not fully aware of the weight upon the 
girl-child heart of feeling condemnation because 
of the belief that the curse of the gods was the 



4 INTRODUCTION 

cause of the death of the boy or man to whom 
she was betrothed. So great was Ramabai's con- 
viction and so high her courage that immediate 
hearing was accorded her. As she stood before 
great audiences, unconscious of fear because of her 
anxiety to place her message before those who 
could enable her to break the bonds and let the op- 
pressed go free, her plea found a generous re- 
sponse. Friends were raised up who made the 
pledge that they would back her initial experiment 
for ten years till it could be proven whether it was 
within the bounds of possibility to have the child- 
widow of the high-castes educated and given an 
opportunity for a life of usefulness. 

Among those who pledged to this unique enter- 
prise the strong support which made possible the 
institution of the Sharada Sadan — " Home of 
Wisdom " — , we find the names of men and women 
of different denominations : Edward Everett Hale, 
Phillips Brooks, Lyman Abbott, Judith W. An- 
drews, Joseph Cook and Frances Willard. 

In 1887 an Association was formed in the City 
of Boston with the names of these Christian leaders 
as incorporators for the purpose of establishing 
this Institution. The Association has continued 
not for ten years but for thirty-five, and still exists 
to carry on the work. Pandita Ramabai on the 
fifth of April 1922 finished her task. A reminder 
of the influences which made this highly gifted and 



INTRODUCTION 6 

unique personality able to cope with the immense 
difficulties of such a proposition, and which de- 
veloped the executive ability to carry it out prac- 
tically unaided, may be welcome as we review her 
accomplishment. For those who admire high cour- 
age and faith and achievement these following 
pages are written. 

Clementina Butler, 
Chairman^ Executive Committee, 
American Ramahai Association. 
Wesleyan Building, Boston. 



Contents 

I. Ramabai's Vision . . . , .11 
11. Thus Saith the^ Law ! . . . .28 

III. Home; Touches 52 

IV. hi^^ Stories 66 

V. ScHoiyAR, Saint and Servant . . 75 

List oi? O^^icers o^ American Ramabai 
Association . . . . .95 



i 



Illustrations 



PACING 

PAGE 



Ramabai at Work on Her Translation of the 

Bible into Popular Marathi Title / 

Ramabai on Her First Visit to America, 1886. 20 

Tara, a Child-Widow — Eleven Years Old. 

She Has Been Branded with Hot Irons .... 24 ' 

The Child-Widow Described with the Brass 
Water Pots, Which She Must Fill at the 
Village Well 24 

Brahmin Priests at Brindaban, the Shrine 
City, Where Thousands of Widows Reside 
in the Temples 46 

Two Child- Widows of India. The One at the 
Left Has Been Two Months in the Sharada 
Sadan, the One on the Right Four Years. . . 58 

Graduates of the Sharada Sadan 58 

One of the Nine Great Wells at Mukti, Which 
Are so Deep They Never Fail. Bullocks 
Pull the Water up in Skin Buckets 60 , 

Manoramabai — Heart's Joy 72 

9 



I 

RAMABAFS VISION 

IN the great aggregation of races and nations 
which we call Hindustan we find not only a 
multiplicity of faiths and religious customs, 
among which are some whose rites and customs 
grieve and offend us, but also some followers of 
these whose high ideals lift them above what is 
undesirable, and whose simple piety commands our 
sympathy, even though we may not agree with 
their beliefs. Such a man was Ananta Shastri 
Dongre, a Brahmin Pundit, liberal beyond the 
teachings of his sacred writings, with a vision 
which lifted womanhood out of the depression and 
inaction to which Hinduism had condemned her. 
His marriage, according to custom, to Laksh- 
mibai, a child of nine years, impressed him as 
contrary to the best interest of his race, and her 
absolute illiteracy so distressed him that he de- 
termined to educate the child, a course so opposed 
to the cherished traditions of the Brahmins that 
it brought upon him ostracism and even persecu- 
tion. 

Finding the mind of the little wife developing 
under his teaching he persisted, even though it 

11 



12 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

meant that he must go to live in some secluded 
place where his actions would not offend. There- 
fore he took up his abode in the forest of Gun- 
gamal, in Western India, in a spot so lonesome 
and remote that often the howls of wild beasts 
terrified the family in the dark hours of the night. 
In this forest home on April 23, 1858, a Uttle 
daughter was born, to whom the father gave the 
name of Ramabai — it may be translated " Delight- 
giver " — and he determined that this little girl 
should have a chance for an education untram- 
melled by Hindu customs and restrictions. The 
child received the most tender training from both 
mother and father, and her memories of this life in 
the forest with no companions save her family and 
the books which they regarded as their chief treas- 
ures, remained vividly with Ramabai through her 
life. Ananta Shastri's fame brought many stu- 
dents to sit at his feet in study of the classics. 

Later, poverty, resulting from the hospitality im- 
posed upon Hindu teachers, had involved him in 
debt, and finally the family set out upon a pilgrim- 
age, having no certain dwelling-place, but wander- 
ing from one sacred locality to another, receiving 
only the small amounts given in gratitude by stu- 
dents who came for instruction to the well-known 
Pundit. The great famine of the Madras Presi- 
dency occurred during these years of wandering 
and bore with terrible suffering upon the pilgrims, 
who, in order to please the gods, would give away 



RAMABAI'S VISION 13 

what little they possessed in alms to the Brahmans, 
and then pray to the gods to send them gold. 
Ramabai's own account says : " We went to sev- 
eral sacred places to worship different gods and 
to bathe in sacred rivers and tanks, to free our- 
selves from sin and the curse which brought pov- 
erty on us. We prostrated ourselves before the 
stone and metal images of the gods, and prayed 
to them day and night, the burden of our prayer 
being that the gods would be pleased to give us 
wealth, learning and renown. But nothing came 
of this futile effort, the stone images remained as 
hard as ever and never answered our prayers. 
We knew the Vedanta, and knew also that we 
worshipped, not images, but some gods whom they 
represented. Still, all our learning and superior 
knowledge was of no avail. We went to the 
astrologers with money and other presents to know 
from them the minds of the gods concerning us. 
In this way we spent our precious time, strength, 
and wxalth in vain. When no money was left in 
hand, we began to sell the valuable things belong- 
ing to us. Jewelries, costly garments, silver ware, 
and even the cooking vessels of brass and copper, 
were sold at the last and the money spent in giving 
alms to Brahmans, till nothing but a few silver 
and copper coins were left in our possession. We 
bought coarse rice with them, and ate very spar- 
ingly; but it did not last long. At last the day 
came when we had finished eating the last grain of 



14 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

rice, and nothing but death by starvation remained 
for our portion. Oh, the sorrow, the helplessness, 
and the disgrace of the situation ! 

" We assembled together tO' consider what we 
should do next, and after a long discussion came 
to the conclusion that it was better to go into the 
forest and die there than bear the disgrace of pov- 
erty among our own people; and that very night 
we left the house in which we were staying and en- 
tered into the great forest, determined to die. 
Eleven days and nights (in which we subsisted on 
water and leaves and a handful of wild dates) were 
spent in great bodily and mental pain. At last 
our dear old father could hold out no longer: the 
tortures of hunger were too much for his poor, 
old, weak body. He determined to drown himself 
in a sacred tank near by, thus to end all his earthly 
sufferings. It was suggested that the rest of us 
should either drown ourselves or break the family 
and go our several ways, but drowning ourselves 
seemed practicable. (To drown one's self in some 
sacred river or tank is not considered suicide by 
Hindus, so we felt free to put an end to our lives 
in that way.) Father wanted to drown himself 
first, so he took leave of all the members of the 
family one by one. I was his youngest child, and 
my turn came last. I shall never forget his last 
injunctions to me. His blind eyes could not see 
my face; but he held me tight in his arms, and 
stroking my head and cheeks, he told me in a few 



EAMABAI'S VISION 16 

words, broken with emotion, to remember how he 
loved me, and how he taught me to do right, and 
never depart from the way of righteousness. His 
last loving command to me was to lead an hon- 
orable life, if I Uved at all, and serve God. He did 
not know the only true God, but served the — to 
him — ^unknown God with all his heart and strength ; 
and he was very desirous that his children should 
serve Him to the last. * Remember, my child,' he 
said, ' you are rmy youngest, my most beloved 
child : I have given you into the hands of our God. 
You are His, and to Him alone you must belong, 
and serve Him all your life.' 

" While we were placed in such a bewildering 
situation the merciful God, who so often prevents 
His sinful children from rushing headlong into 
the deep pit of sin, came to our rescue. He kept 
us from the dreadful act of being witnesses to the 
suicide of our own beloved father. God put a 
noble thought into the heart of my brother, who 
said he could not bear to see the sad sight. He 
would give up all caste pride and go to work to 
support our old parents ; and, as father was unable 
to walk, he said he would carry him down the 
mountain into the nearest village, and then go to 
work. He made his intentions known to father, 
and begged him not to drown himself in the sacred 
tank. So the question was settled for that time. 
Our hearts were gladdened, and we prepared to 
start from the forest; and yet we wished very 



16 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

much that a tiger, a great snake, or some other 
wild animal would put an end to our lives. We 
were too weak to move, and too proud to beg or 
work to earn a livelihood. But the resolution was 
made, and we dragged ourselves out of the jungle 
as best we could. 

" It took us nearly two days to come out of the 
forest into a village at the foot of the mountain. 
Father suffered intensely throughout this time. 
Weakness, caused by starvation and the hardships 
of the life in the wilderness, hastened his death. 
We took shelter in a temple, but the Brahman 
priests would not let us stay there. They had no 
pity for the weak and helpless. So we were 
obliged again to move from the temple and go out 
of the village into the ruins of an old temple, 
where no one but the wild animals dwelt in the 
night. There we stayed for four days. A young 
Brahman, seeing the helplessness of our situation, 
gave us some food. The same day my father was 
attacked by fever from which he did not recover." 

After the death of her father and mother 
Ramabai, with her brother, travelled throughout 
India until they arrived in Calcutta, where op- 
portunity came for her to take advantage of her 
scholarship. The story of her knowledge and her 
views on the emancipation and education of woman 
were recerved with enthusiasm by some Hindus, 
who delighted to h^ar the holy Sanscrit from a 
woman's lips. Her fame had reached Calcutta, 



RAMABAI'S VISION 17 

and a formal invitation was given for her to lec- 
ture in that great city before the assembled 
Pundits. Her remarkable scholarship and es- 
pecially her thorough knowledge of the Sanscrit 
Holy Books so delighted these scholars that they 
called a public assembly in the Town Hall of Cal- 
cutta and conferred upon her the highest title pos- 
sible in India for a woman — " Sarasvati," " God- 
dess of Wisdom." She was twenty-two at this 
time and unmarried, for her father had refused the 
offers which came to him from the time she was 
nine, stating that she was to be a student; this 
refusal to conform, to the caste customs being 
partly responsible for his misfortunes. Her broth- 
er's devotion and aid was sufficient up to this 
time, and they continued together the work their 
father had so well begun. 

Again sorrow struck her heart in the death of 
her brother, whose constitution had been under- 
minded by the ravages of famine. She was left 
alone in the world, but a few months later married 
a Bengali gentleman, Bepin Bihari Medhavi, a 
graduate of Calcutta University. As each was too 
advanced for the popular Hinduism of the day, 
they were united by the civil marriage rite. After 
nineteen months of happy married life her husband 
died, leaving her with a little daughter, whom they 
had named Manorama (Heart's Joy). She con- 
tinued her lectures, and formed soon after a society 
of ladies known as the Arya Mahila Somaj, whose 



18 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

object was the promotion of education among na- 
tive women and the discouragement of child- 
marriage. She then went from city to city through- 
out the Bombay Presidency, establishing branch 
societies and arousing the people by her eloquent 
appeals. 

• Ramabai now realized that she herself needed 
training to enable her to prosecute with success her 
work among the women of India on behalf of edu- 
cation. Then too, as she had in her experience be- 
come conscious of God's guidance, her spirit was 
possessed of that unrest which is the solemn move^ 
ment of the soul God ward, seeking the Lord, if 
haply she (they) might feel after Him and find 
Him. " I felt a restless desire to go to England," 
she writes. " I could not have done this unless I 
had felt that my faith in God had become strong : 
it is such a great step for a Hindu woman to cross 
the sea; one cuts one's self always off from one's 
people. But the voice came to me, as to Abraham. 
I went forth, not knowing whither I went." Be- 
fore leaving India Ramabai wrote a book on Mor- 
als for Women, which furnished the money for her 
passage. Friends were raised up for her in Eng- 
land, where she saw for the first time Christianity 
at work. One thing that impressed her was the res- 
cue work for women as a new thing in religion, 
something which not only rewarded the good and 
virtuous, but attempted even to lift the fallen; and 
as a result of her observations she and her little 



RAMABAI'S VISION 19 

daughter were bap^tized in the Church of England 
in 1883. Having acquired English in a year of 
study in the Home of St. Mary at Wantage, she 
secured a position as Professor of Sanskrit at the 
Women's College at Cheltenham, where she also 
entered as a student of mathematics, science, and 
English literature. 

In 1886 she was attracted to America, in order to 
witness the graduation of her cousin, Mrs. Joshee, 
from the Women's Medical College in Philadel- 
phia. Soon after her arrival here she wrote: — 

" I am deeply impressed by and interested in the 
work of Western women, who seem to have one 
common aim; namely, the good of their fellow- 
beings. It is my dream some day to tell my coun- 
trywomen, in their own languages, this wonderful 
story, in the hope that the recital may awaken in 
their hearts a desire to do likewise." 

As her contact with a public educational system, 
which included girls as well as boys, was prolonged, 
her old desire to benefit her countrywomen by 
forming schools which combined the training of 
the hand with that of the head revived, and, forsak- 
ing plans which regarded only the higher education 
of the few women in government high schools or 
colleges in India, she concentrated her thoughts 
upon native schools founded by and for native 
women. Her first public address was on March 2, 
1886, in the parlor of the Y. M. C. A., in Phila- 
delphia, where for three-quarters of an hour she 



20 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

held the attention of the audience as she spoke of 
the condition and needs of her sex, the hfe and re- 
lations of Hindu womanhood, and made an appeal 
for sympathy in her proposed work. Not long 
after this she came to Boston and appeared on the 
platform of Tremont Temple. Many friends were 
raised up for her, and finally, Dec. 13, 1887, the 
Ramabai Association was formed, with the object 
of giving education to high-caste child widows of 
India. Her friends at different places organized 
Circles which pledged themselves to give annually 
for the space of ten years a sum of money with 
which she might establish a home to train Hindu 
widows, especially the child widows from high- 
caste homes, and so enable them to gain an inde- 
pendent livelihood. She pledged herself to adhere 
in her mode of living to native customs. In regard 
to the project, she said: " I am fully aware of the 
great responsibility, the trial, and it may be the 
failure, it will involve ; but, as some one must make 
a beginning, I am resolved to try, trusting that God, 
who knows the need of my countrywomen, will 
raise up able workers to forward this cause, 
whether I succeed in it or not. The great majority 
of my country people being bitterly opposed to the 
education of women, there is little hope of my get- 
ting from them, either good words or pecuniary 
aid." 

Audiences in Boston are accustomed to strange 
peoples and unusual plans, but no one who was 




Ramabai on her first visit to America in 1886. 



RAMABAI'S VISION 21 

present that day can ever forget the slight figure 
of the Httle widow in her white garb and with the 
close shaven bead indicative of her despised estate, 
as she gave her burning plea for justice for the 
child-widow of India, that little one who, betrothed 
in infancy, and before the final ceremony was per- 
formed was condemned to the ignominy of life 
long widowhood because of the death of the boy 
or man she had never seen, betrothal being con- 
sidered binding the girl in the case. Such a condi- 
tion appeared in no country on earth save in Hin- 
dustan and, outside of Christian help, there was no 
remedy. 

The touching appeal found its way to the hearts 
of many who pledged themselves for ten years sup- 
port of Ramabai's enterprise; and so, with her 
dream fulfilled, the Pundita started back, no longer 
oppressed with the knowledge of tragic conditions 
without any prospect for alleviation in sight. Her 
reception in India was more cordial than she dared 
to hope. It was understood that the new School 
was to be non-sectarian, which the Hindus took 
to mean non-Christian. This view made difficulties 
of which we will speak later. 

In March, 1889, the Sharada Sadan (the Home 
of Wisdom) was opened in Bombay. Ramabai 
had returned from her native land after nearly 
seven years' absence, no longer a poor, friendless, 
homeless widow, but a leader supported by hun- 
dreds — no, by thousands — of sympathetic hearts in 



22 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

America and England as she began her great work 
for the high-caste girls and widows in that section 
of India. At the dedication of the school a high- 
caste Hindu lady had been induced to take the 
chair. A newspaper of Bombay states that this 
was the first time that an Indian lady had ever pre- 
sided on such an important occasion. Pandita 
Ramabai gave an account of her travels and her 
plans for the benefit of her fellow countrywomen, 
and stated the principles on which she should con- 
duct her school, following with an earnest appeal 
to her countrymen for their sympathy and support. 
The Sadan was opened that very afternoon, with 
one student, a child widow, who had suffered much 
since her betrothed husband had died, so that she 
had been considering suicide. Another came soon, 
and by the end of the first quarter twenty-two stu- 
dents were under Ramabai's influence. " Already,'* 
Pandita Ramabai writes, " I can see a change in 
the impish natures of my girls. They seem to feel 
their responsibility. We have happy times in the 
evenings when all the girls come into my room and 
we sing together as best we can. We have no love 
songs to sing, no comic bits to say; but we sing 
hymns and feel quite contented. You see, they do 
not allow women to sing: they think it is a bad 
thing in a housewife. But we are getting unruly 
in this school of ours. We are going to turn the 
tide, and make it a good and honorable taste." 
An Advisory Board was formed in India, carry- 



RAMABAI'S VISION 23 

ing such names as Professor Ramakrishna Bhan- 
darkar, Mr. Justice Telang, and others. In the 
early days Ramabai had full opportunity to re- 
port to us the life stories of her pupils. The 
pathetic stories that follow speak for themselves : — 

" A child widow of thirteen was brought to the 
school by her father. She was betrothed when just 
emerging from babyhood, and taken to live with 
her mother-in-law. She never knew a child's hap- 
piness, and, when her husband died, the treatment 
she received became cruel in the extreme. Con- 
stantly taunted with having killed her husband by 
some sin committed in a former existence, starved, 
beaten, her body often balanced through a ring 
suspended from the ceiling, she became prematurely 
old. When her father could bear the sight no 
longer, and took her to Ramabai, the light had gone 
out of her large dark eyes, her head and shoulders 
were bowed as under a great burden. Ramabai's 
heart ached for the poor child, and she took her in. 
They played with her, sang to her little songs, tried 
to make her forget her misery, and succeeded. 
Soon strength returned to her limbs, the light to 
her eyes, and her whole expression changed as she 
felt the joy of being a free and happy child. She 
proves to be an intelligent and diligent pupil." 

" The story of Gangabai is equally sad. She 
was a widow at fifteen, an ignorant child who could 
neither read nor write. She was defrauded by her 
brother-in-law of all her jewels and the movable 



24 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

property of her husband, to which she was entitled 
by the laws of that Presidency. Her fine linen was 
replaced by the coarse garment which was to be 
henceforth the badge of shame. Her head was 
shaven, and every possible indignity was heaped 
upon her. She was forced to beg for work and 
food, or starve. Work she could not get. Filth 
instead of food was thrown into her little basket. 
Mocking, tavmting words were the only answers 
to her piteous appeals. Three times she resolved 
to put an end to her miserable existence, but the 
fear of another incarnation into womanhood re- 
strained her. She heard of Ramabai's school and 
came to it, notwithstanding the curses of her peo- 
ple, who threatened her with excommunication, 
loss of caste and religion, and with all the plagues 
they could invoke. She came and was happy, 
praying night and morning that, when born again, 
it might be among the birds, and not a woman." 

In 1891 the institution was removed to Poona, 
where a fine building was purchased for its use, 
costing $15,000. It was a veritable haven of rest 
for the despised child- widows, a door of oppor- 
tunity for an honorable and happy life. At the 
dedication of this new building Ramabai had the 
joy of having with her Mrs. Andrews, who was 
chairman of the Board of Managers of the As- 
sociation, and was a mother beloved to this her 
Indian daughter in her unceasing care and efforts 
for the successful prosecution of her enterprise. 




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RAMABAI'S VISION 25 

At the beginning of her school Ramabai's idea 
was to have it absolutely non-sectarian, to allow 
freedom for all faiths and caste observances. This 
was, and still is, the pohcy of the school; but 
Ramabai's own Christian life had so grown from 
year to year in depth and sweetness, and was such 
an example before the eyes of her girls, that many 
of them became Christians. This caused a loss of 
sympathy with the Hindu members of our Ad- 
visory Board, and it was feared by some members 
of the Association here that she was departing 
from the policy which was understood from the 
beginning, of remaining neutral, and exerting no 
compulsion on the Hindu women to leave their 
ancestral faith. (Ramabai stated, and we believe 
her to have kept the vow, that she would not in- 
terfere with the religious preferences of her pupils ; 
but such a life as hers, so consecrated in its Chris- 
tian service, has not failed to attract, so that the 
very large majority of those under her care have 
become earnest Christians.) In 1892 such opposi- 
tion arose because of these events that one of the 
daily papers of the city stated, " The Sharada 
Sadan has received its death blow," and many of 
her pupils were removed from her school for fear 
of their becoming Christians. Anonymous letters 
threatened Ramabai's life; papers became abusive, 
and even indecent; the Advisory Board in India 
resigned, and circulars were sent to parents and 
guardians advising the withdrawal of the widows. 



26 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

But Ramabai's policy was not changed. She re- 
fused to close her door when holding her family 
prayers with her daughter at five o'clock in the 
morning. From that time on she has been un- 
hampered in her absolute freedom of worship. 
During a visit to Mukti in 1906 I found some in 
the Home still keeping their caste rules as orthodox 
Hindus; but the large majority, having received 
from this institution the freedom which Chris- 
tianity allows in educational and social matters, 
have desired to accept this liberty in things re- 
ligious. 

The need for such an institution had been set 
before the public by Ramabai in her book, The 
High-Caste Hindu Widow, to which a very warm 
reception was given, and the London Atheneum 
reviewing it stated : " The new institution has, 
we understand, received the support of two of 
the most distinguished scholars of India, Ram- 
krishna Bhandarkar and Kasenath Telang. After 
all the most telling argument for the scheme is the 
story of Ramabai's life, spent as it has been in 
the face of severe trials. We are glad to note 
that at the recent Oriental Congress at Christiania 
the Pundita's name was selected by Professor 
Max MuUer in his published address to place with 
those of Ram Mohum Roy, Keshub Chunder Sen 
and Nilakan Tagore as representatives of modern 
Indian progress." 

The two whose names are thus so highly hon- 



RAMABAI'S VISION 27 

ored, Dr. Bhandarkar and Justice Telang were 
both kind enough to allow their names to be on 
the Advisory Board for the Sharada Sadan dur- 
ing its first three years of existence, and until a 
number of conversions to Christianity occurred 
when they withdrew their names. 



II 

THUS SAITH THE LAW! 

IN order that we may understand something 
of the contrast between Ramabai's aims for 
her sisters and the attitude of Hinduism to- 
wards them, we should note the limitations placed 
upon womanhood by the laws of Manu, and quoted 
by the Pundita in her book — The High Caste 
Hindu Woman — (now unhappily out of print but 
available in missionary libraries), and in judging 
between her statements and those of certain people 
who attempt to gloss over the truth of this mat- 
ter, let us recall the fact that she was, by the as- 
sembled pundits of Calcutta, entitled Sarasvati, due 
to her knowledge of the sacred books of their faith, 
therefore she speaks with authority unquestionable. 
While recognizing frankly that caste originated in 
the idea of the economic division of labor, she 
states — P. 35 " that when caste became an article 
of the Hindu faith it assumed the formidable pro- 
portions which now prevail everywhere in India." 
" The Vedas are believed by the devout Hindu to 
be the eternal self -existing Word of God revealed 
by Him to different sages, and besides the Vedas 
there were more than twenty-five books of sacred 

28 



THUS SAITH THE LAW! 29 

law on which are based the principal customs and 
religious institutions of the Hindus. Among these 
the Code of Manu ranks highest and is believed to 
be very sacred, second to nothing but the Vedas 
themselves." 

" Although Manu and the other law givers dif- 
fer greatly on many points, they all agree on things 
concerning women. According to this sacred law 
a woman's life is divided into three parts, viz.: 1, 
Childhood, 2, Young or married life, and 3, Wid- 
owhood or old age. 

" Hear now the duties of women. 

" By a girl, by a young woman or even by an 
aged one, nothing must be done independently even 
in her own house. 

" In childhood a female must be subject to her 
father, in youth to her husband, and when her lord 
is dead, to her sons ; a woman must never be inde- 
pendent. 

" Though destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure 
elsewhere or devoid of good qualities, yet a husband 
must be constantly worshipped as a god by a faith- 
ful wife." Manu V 147-156. 

" A barren wife may be superseded in the eighth 
year, she whose children all die in the tenth, she 
who bears only daughters in the eleventh, but she 
who is quarrelsome without delay." — Manu IX 78. 

Ramabai comments on the above : 

" But no such provision is made for the woman ; 
on the contrary she must remain with and revere 



30 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

her husband as a god even though he be destitute 
of virtue and seek pleasure elsewhere, or be de- 
void of good qualities, addicted to evil passion, 
fond of spirituous liquors, or diseased and what 
not! 

" Our Aryan Hindus did and still do honor 
women to a certain extent. Although the woman 
is looked upon as an inferior being, the mother is 
nevertheless the chief person and worthy to re- 
ceive all honor from the son. The mother is the 
queen of the son's household; she wields great 
power there and is generally obeyed as the head 
of the family by her sons and daughters-in-law. 
But there is a reverse side to the shield which 
should not be left unobserved. This is best 
studied in the I^aws of Manu, as all Hindus with 
a few exceptions believe implicitly what that law- 
giver says about women: — in Chap. IX 18. 

" It is the nature of women to seduce men in 
this world ; for that reason the wise are never un- 
guarded in the company of females. 

"For women are able to lead astray in this 
w^orld not only a fool, but even a learned man. 

" For women no sacramental rite is performed 
with the sacred texts, thus the law is settled. 
Women who are destitute of the knowledge of the 
Vedic texts are as impure as falsehood itself." 

" Those who diligently and impartially read the 
Sanscrit literature in the original cannot fail to 
recognize the I^awgiver and as one of those who 



THUS SAITH THE LAW! 31 

have done their best to make woman a hateful be- 
ing in the world's eye. To employ her in house- 
keeping and kindred occupation is thought to be 
the only means of keeping her out of mischief, the 
blessed enjoyment of literary culture being denied 
her. She is forbidden to read the sacred scrip- 
tures, she has no right to pronounce a single syl- 
lable of them. To appease her uncultivated low 
kind of desire by giving her ornament to adorn 
her person and by giving her dainty food, together 
with an occasional bow which costs nothing, are 
the highest honors to which a Hindu woman is 
entitled. She, the loving mother, the devoted wife, 
the tender sister and affectionate daughter is 
never fit for independence and is as impure as 
falsehood itself." 

" I can say truthfully I have never read any 
sacred book in Sanscrit literature without meeting 
this hateful kind of sentiment about women. True, 
they contain here and there a kind word about 
them, but such words seem to me a heartless mock- 
ery after having charged them as a class with crime 
and evil deeds. 

" Profane literature is by no means less severe 
or more respectful towards women. I quote from 
the ethical teachings, part of a catechism and also 
a few proverbs : 

Q. What is cruel ? 

A. The heart of the viper. 

Q. What is more cruel than that ? 



32 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

A. The heart of a woman. 

Q. What is the crtielest of all? 

A. The heart of a sonless, penniless widow, 

A catechism on moral subjects written by a 
Hindu gentleman of high literary reputation says : 

Q. What is the chief gate to hell ? 

A. A woman. 

Q. What bewitches like wine ? 

A. A woman. 

Q. Who is the wisest of the wise ? 

A. He who has not been deceived by women, 
who may be compared to maligant fiends. 

Q. What are fetters to men ? 

A. Women. 

Q. What is that which cannot be trusted? 

A. Women. 

Q. What poison is that which appears like 
nectar ? 

A. Women. 
Some popular proverbs : 

Never put your trust in women. 

Women's counsel leads to destruction. 

Woman is a great whirlpool of suspicion, a 
dwelling place of vices, full of deceits, a hindrance 
in the way of heaven, a gate of hell." 

" Having illustrated the popular belief about 
woman's nature, I now proceed to state woman's 
religion. Virtues such as truthfulness, forbear- 
ance, purity of heart and uprightness, are common 
to men and women, but religion as the word is 



THUS SAITH THE LAW! 33 

commonly understood had two distinct natures in 
the Hindu law, the masculine and the feminine. 
The sum and substance of the latter may be given 
in a few words: To look upon her husband as a 
god, to hope for salvation only through him, to 
be obedient to him in all things, never to covet 
independence, never to do anything but that which 
is approved by law and custom. 

"A faithful wife who desires to dwell after 
death with her husband must never do anything 
which might displease him who took her hand 
whether he be alive or dead. Manu V, 147-156. 

" By violating her duty towards her husband a 
wife is disgraced in this world — after death she 
enters the womb of a jackal and is tormented by 
diseases — the punishment of her sins. 

" She who, controlling her thoughts, words and 
deeds never slights her lord, resides after death 
with her husband in heaven and is called a virtuous 
wife. Manu V, 164. 

We now come to the worst and most dreaded 
period of a high caste woman's life. Throughout 
India widowhood is regarded as the punishment of 
a horrible crime or crimes committed in her former 
existence upon earth. Disobedience and disloyalty 
to the husband, or murdering him in an earlier ex- 
istence are the chief crimes punished in the pres- 
ent by widowhood. 

"If the widow be a mother of sons she is not 
usually a pitiable object, although she is certainly 



34 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

looked upon as a sinner, yet social abuse and hatred 
are greatly diminished by virtue of the fact that 
she is the mother of superior beings. Next in 
rank to her stands the ancient widow, because a 
virtuous aged widow who has bravely withstood 
the thousand temptations and persecutions of her 
lot commands an involuntary respect from all 
people, to which may be added the honor given to 
old age quite independent of the individual. The 
widow mother of girls is treated indifferently and 
sometimes with genuine hatred, especially so if 
her daughters have not been given in marriage in 
her husband's lifetime. But it is the child-widow 
or a childless young widow upon whom in an 
especial manner falls the abuse and hatred of the 
community as the greatest criminal upon whom 
Heaven's judgment has been pronounced. 

" In ancient times the Code of Manu was yet 
in the dark future and when the priesthood had 
not yet mutilated the original Vedic text, re- 
marriage was in existence. It may be briefly 
stated: The rite of child marriage made many a 
child a widow before she knew what marriage 
was, and her husband having died sonless had no 
right to enter heaven and enjoy immortality, for 
the father obtains immortality if he sees the face 
of a living son. Endless are the worlds of those 
who have no sons; there is no place for the man 
who is destitute of male offspring. 

" In order that these departed husbands might 



THUS SAITH THE LAW! 36 

attain the abode of the blessed, the ancient sages 
invented the custom of " Appointment," by which 
the Hindu Aryans raised up seed for the deceased 
husbands. The brother, cousin or other kinsman 
successively was appointed to raise up offspring to 
the dead. The desired issue having been obtained, 
any intercourse between the appointed persons was 
thenceforth considered illegal and sinful. The 
woman still remained the widow of her deceased 
husband and the children were considered his 
heirs. Later on the custom of Appointment was 
gradually discouraged in spite of the Vedic text al- 
ready quoted — " There is no place for the man 
who is destitute of male offspring." 

The duties of a widow are thus described by 
Manu : 

" At her pleasure let her emaciate her body by 
living on pure flowers, roots and fruits; but she 
must never mention the name of another man after 
her husband dies." 

" Until death let her be patient of hardships, 
self controlled, chaste, and strive to fulfill that most 
excellent duty for wives who have one husband 
only." Manu V, 157. 

" Nor is a second husband anywhere prescribed 
for virtuous women." Manu V, 162. 

The self-immolation of widows on the deceased 
husband's pyre was evidently a custom invented by 
the priesthood after the Code of Manu was com- 
piled. The law taught in the schools of Apastamba, 



36 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

Asvalayana and others older than Manu do not 
mention it, neither does the code of Manu. The 
code of Vishnu, which is comparatively recent, 
says that a woman " after the death of her hus- 
band should either lead a virtuous life or ascend 
the funeral pyre of her husband." 

The Casi Candam says "If matrons who have 
put off glittering ornaments of gold (otherwise 
widows) still wear their hair in unshortened locks, 
the ministers of the fiery eyed Yama shall bind 
with cords the husband of her desire." 

Ramabai continues : — 

" It is very difficult to ascertain the motives of 
those who invented the terrible custom of the so- 
called Suttee, which was regarded as a sublimely 
meritorious act. As Manu, the greatest authority 
next to the Vedas, did not sanction this sacrifice, 
the priests saw the necessity of producing some text 
which would overcome the natural fears of the 
widow as well as silence the critic who should re- 
fuse to allow such a horrid rite without strong 
authority. So the priests said there was a text in 
the Rig-veda which, according to their own render- 
ing, reads thus : — 

" 'Om ! let these women, not to be widowed, good 
wives, adorned with collyrium, holding clarified 
butter, consign themselves to the fire! Immortal, 
not childless, not husbandless, well adorned with 
gems, let them pass into the fire whose original ele- 
ment is water.' 



THUS SAITH THE LAW! 37 

" Here was an authority greater than that of 
Manu or any other law giver. The priests and 
their alHes pictured heaven in the most beautiful 
colors and described various enjoyments so vividly 
that the poor widow became madly impatient to get 
to the blessed place in company with her departed 
husband. Not only was the woman assured of her 
getting into heaven by this sublime act, but also 
that by this great sacrifice she would secure salva- 
tion to herself and her husband and to their fami- 
lies to the seventh generation. Be they ever so 
sinful, they would surely attain the highest bliss in 
heaven. Who would not sacrifice herself if she 
were sure of such a result to herself and to her 
loved ones? Besides this, she was conscious of the 
miseries and degradation to which she would be 
subjected now that she had survived her husband. 
The momentary agony of suffcation in the flames 
was nothing compared to her lot as a widow. She 
gladly consented and voluntarily offered herself to 
please the gods and men. The rite of Suttee is 
thus described by Sir Edwin Arnold : — 

" ' The widow bathed, put on new and bright 
garments, and holding Kusha grass in her left hand 
sipped water from her right palm, scattered some 
Tilla grains and then, looking eastward quietly said 
" Om ! on this day I, such and such a one, of such 
a family, die in the fire, that I may meet Arundhati, 
and reside in Svarga ; that the years of my sojourn 
there may be as many as the hairs upon my hus- 



38 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

band, many scores multiplied; that I may enjoy 
with him the facilities of heaven, and bless my ma- 
ternal and paternal ancestors, and those of my 
lord's line ; that praised by Apsarasas, I may go far 
through the fourteen regions of Indra; that pardon 
may be given to my lord's sins whether he have 
ever killed a Brahman, broken the laws of gratitude 
and truth, or slain his friend. Now I do ascend 
this funeral pyre of my husband, and I call upon 
you, guardians of the eight regions of the world, 
of sun, moon, air, of the fire, the ether, the earth, 
and the water, and my own soul. Yama, King of 
death, and you. Day, Night and Twilight, witness 
that I die for my beloved, by his side upon his 
funeral pyre." Is it wonderful that the passage of 
the Sati to her couch of flame was like a public 
festival, that the sick and sorrowful prayed her to 
touch them with her little, fearless, conquering 
hand, that criminals were let loose if she looked 
upon them, that the horse which carried her was 
never used again for earthly service? 

" The act was supposed to be altogether a volun- 
tary one, and no doubt it was so in many cases. 
Some died for the love stronger than death which 
they cherished for their husbands. Some died not 
because they had been happy in this world, but be- 
cause they believed with, all the heart that they 
should be made happy hereafter. Some to obtain 
great renown, for tombstones and monuments were 
erected to those who thus died, and afterwards the 



THUS SAITH THE LAW! 39 

names were inscribed on the long list of family 
gods ; others again, to escape the thousand tempta- 
tions, and sins and miseries which they knew would 
fall to their lot as widows. Those who from pure 
ambition or from momentary impulse, declared 
their intentions thus to die, very often shrank from 
the fearful altar; no sooner did they feel the heat 
of the flames than they tried to leap down and es- 
cape the terrible fate; but it was too late. They 
had taken the solemn oath which must never be 
broken, priests and other men were at hand to force 
them to remount the pyre. In Bengal, where this 
custom was most in practice, countless, fearful 
tragedies of this description occurred even after 
British rule was long established there. Christian 
missionaries petitioned the government to abolish 
this inhuman custom, but they were told that the 
social and religious customs of the people consti- 
tuted no part of the business of the government, 
and that their rule in India might be endangered by 
such interference. The custom went on unmo- 
lected until the first quarter of the present century, 
when a man from among the Hindus, Raja Ram 
Mohun Roy, set his face against it, and declared 
that it was not sanctioned by the Veda as the priests 
claimed. He wrote many books on this subject, 
showing the wickedness of the act, and with the 
noble co-operation of a few friends, he succeeded 
at last in getting the government to abolish it. 
Lord William Bentinck, when Governor-general of 



40 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

India, had the moral courage to enact the famous 
law of 1829, prohibiting the Suttee rite within 
British domains, and holding as criminals, subject 
to capital punishment, those who countenanced it. 
But it was not until 1844 that the law had any 
effect upon orthodox Hindu minds. 

"The Rig-Veda," says Max Muller, "so far 
from enforcing the burning of widows, shows 
clearly that the custom was not sanctioned during 
the earliest period of Indian history. According to 
the hymns of the Rig-veda, and the Vedic ceremon- 
ial contained in the Grihya-sutras, the wife accom- 
panies the corpse of her husband to the funeral 
pyre, but she is there addressed with a verse taken 
from the Rig-veda, and ordered to leave her hus- 
band and to return to the world of the living." 

" ' Rise, woman,' it is said, ' come to the world 
of life, thou sleepest nigh unto him whose life is 
gone. Come to us. Thou hast thus fulfilled the 
duties of a wife to the husband, who once took thy 
hand and made thee a mother." It was by falsify- 
ing the single syllable that the unscrupulous priests 
managed to change entirely the meaning of the 
whole verse. 

" Throughout India, now that the Suttee rite, 
partly by the will of the people and partly by the 
law of the Empire, is prohibited, many good people 
feel easy in their minds, thinking the Hindu widow 
has been delivered from the hand of her terrible 
fate, but little do they realize the true state of af- 



THUS SAITH THE LAW! 41 

fairs. Throughout India, except in the northwest- 
ern provinces, women are put to the severest trial 
imaginable after the husband's death They are de- 
prived of every gold and silver ornament, of the 
bright-colored garments, and of all the things they 
love to have about or on their persons. Among 
the Brahmins of Deccan the heads of all widows 
must be shaved regularly every fortnight. What 
woman is there who does not love the wealth of 
soft and glossy hair with which nature has so 
generously decorated her head ? A Hindu woman 
thinks it worse than death to lose her beautiful hair. 
The widow must wear a single coarse garment, 
white, red or brown. She must eat only one meal 
during the 24 hours. She must never take part in 
the family feasts and jubilees with others. A man 
thinks it unlucky to behold a widow's face. He will 
postpone his journey if his path happens to be 
crossed by a widow at the time of his departure. 

" A widow is called an inauspicious thing. The 
name ' Rand,' by which she is generally known, is 
the same that is borne by a Nautch girl or a harlot. 
The relatives of the young widow's husband are 
always ready to call her bad names. There is 
scarcely a day of her life in which she is not cursed 
by these people as the cause of their beloved's death. 
There may be exceptions to this rule, but unhappily 
they are not many. The young widow is always 
looked upon with suspicion for fear that she may 
bring disgrace upon the family. The purpose of 



42 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

disfiguring her by shaving her head, by not allow- 
ing her ornaments or bright, beautiful garments is 
to render her less attractive to a man's eye. Not 
allowing her to eat more than once a day and com- 
pelling her to abstain from food altogether on 
sacred days is a part of the discipline by which to 
mortify her youthful nature and desire. Her life, 
then, destitute as it is of the least literary knowl- 
edge, void of all hope, empty of every pleasure and 
social advantage, becomes intolerable, a curse to 
herself and to society at large." 

Ramabai gave in her book, The High Caste 
Hindu Woman, the numbers of such unfortu- 
nates in her country as approximately twenty-three 
million widows, of whom ten thousand were under 
four years of age and fifty-one thousand between 
five and nine years. This is a more moderate 
estimate than that given by later census figures. 

" It is often asked why the number of widows 
is so very large, to which question there are two 
conclusive answers. First, young girls and even 
infants are often given in marriage to old men, 
who soon dying leave the young brides widows 
forever. Second, as an unmarried girl is a dis- 
grace to the entire family the poorest father will 
pay whatever sum he can collect to almost any man 
who will marry his child. Therefore, in some parts 
of India, men have made it a trade to go from 
town to town, marry the young girls offered to 
them and collect the fees for their support. These 



THUS SAITH THE LAW! 43 

Kulin Brahmins may leave fifty or one hundred 
child-widows, who never saw his face after the 
marriage rites were performed. Happily for 
India, this practice is growing in disfavor. 

" We are told that there are no infant marriages. 
An answer to this statement is found in the follow- 
ing extract from the Mysore Census Commission- 
er's Report, a report for one district alone. In 
the first year of their existence, seventy-four 
Hindoo female children were carried by their par- 
ents through the forms of marriage. Children of 
both sexes figure on the matrimonial stage in their 
second year, although the girls outnumbered the 
boys. In the third year the proportion is still 
higher, while in the whole period from, one to 
five years, five hundred and twelve boy husbands 
against eleven thousand one hundred and seventy- 
five girl wives are recorded as having been put 
through the travesty of the sacred rite of marriage. 
A still greater disproportion is presented in the 
next quin-quennial period, which gives as many 
as 180,947 child wives against 8,173 boy hus- 
bands." An editor of the native paper commented 
on this report as follows : " One cannot but ex- 
claim * Horror ! ' at the sight of these figures. 
Think of seventy-four baby wives, or rather their 
literally infant wives. We must he saved from our- 
selz^es in spite of oiirselves. But who is to be our 
savior?" 

To this cry of one of the more enlightened of 



44 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

India's people we must answer that the first who 
walked the difficult pathway of protest against this 
entrenched injustice and wrong was Pundita 
Ramabai ! She continues : — 

" We are told that the life of the child widow 
is not so hard and pitiless as represented. That 
the majority have liappy homes and they yield 
cheerfully, bravely to the restrictions their custom 
or religion places upon them. If so, why are the 
shaven heads and the coarse white gamients 
badges of shame? Why are the bodies emaciated 
and disfigured by cruel blows? Why the sullen, 
joyless expression of the face? Why so many 
suicides and lives of shame? Listen to the pitiful 
histories of some of the inmates of the Sharada 
Sadan who bear the white marks of hot iron on 
their heads, white scars made by sharp fingernails 
meeting in the tender flesh of the face, or look 
at the expression on the face of one of the two 
thousand widows kept in the temples of Brindaban, 
and Ramabai's zeal on their behalf is not for 
a moment to be considered excessive. 

Hearing of some presentation of Hinduism made 
to Americans Ramabai wrote, " I beg my western 
sisters not to be satisfied at looking at the outside 
beauty of the grand philosophies, and not to be 
charmed with hearing the interesting discourses 
about educated men, but to open the trap doors of 
the great monuments of ancient Hindoo intellect 
and enter into the dark cellars where they will see 



THUS SAITH THE LAW! 46 

the real workings of these philosophies. Let them 
come to India, and live among us. Let them go 
to the sacred places where countless pilgrims 
throng yearly. Let them go round Jagannath 
Puri, Benares, Gaya, Allahabad, Muttra, Bindra- 
ban, Dwarka, Pandharpur, Udipi, Tirpatty, and 
such other sacred cities, the strongholds of Hindu- 
ism and seats of sacred learning, where the Ma- 
hatmas and Sadhus dwell and where the * sublime * 
philosophies are daily taught and devoutly fol- 
lowed. The thousands of priests, men learned in 
sacred law, who are the spiritual rulers and guides 
of our people, who neglect and oppress the widows 
and devour widows' houses. I have gone to many 
of the so-called sacred places and have seen enough 
of these possessors of superior Hindoo spirituality, 
who oppress the widows and trample the poor, ig- 
norant low caste people under their feet. They 
have deprived the widows of their birthright to 
enjoy pure life and lawful happiness. They send 
out hundreds of emissaries to look for young 
widows and bring them by thousands to the sacred 
cities to rob them of their money and their virtue. 
They entice the poor, ignorant women to leave 
their own houses to live in the Kshetras, — i e, the 
Holy Places, — and then after robbing them of their 
belongings, tempt them to yield to their unholy 
desires. They shut the young, helpless widows 
into their large Mathas (Monasteries) hire them 
out to wicked men, as long as they can get money, 



46 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

and when the poor, miserable slaves are no longer 
pleasing, they turn them out to beg their liveli- 
hood, to suffer the horrible consequence of sin, to 
carry the burden of shame and finally to die the 
death worse than that of a starved street dog! The 
so-called sacred places, — those veritable hells on 
earth, have become the graveyard of countless 
widows and orphans. Thousands upon thousands 
of young widows are suffering untold misery and 
dying helpless each year throughout this land, but 
not a philosopher or Mahatma has come out 
boldly to champion their cause. If anything has 
been done by anybody at all, it has been done by 
those people who have come under the direct in- 
fluence of Christianity. Let my western sisters be 
charmed by the books and poems that they read; 
there are many hard and bitter facts which we 
have to accept and to feel ! " 

It may be asked why Ramabai presumes to 
speak so definitely about these practices. As a 
scholar she might have been mislead or from hear- 
say she might have received misinformation, but 
in order that she might know for herself the truth 
of the matter, she made a tour through India, visit- 
ing the principal shrine cities — her widow's garb 
giving her access to many places which a foreigner 
might never enter. It is refreshing too to find that 
she was not only willing to tell the truth about her 
own people, but that she knew the history of her 
own beloved land. If any have received the im- 



THUS SAITH THE LAW! 47 

pression that India was free before the coming of 
the British as has recently been stated on the pub- 
lic platform of our leading cities, let them read 
Ramabai's description of one of the exquisite pal- 
aces of the Great Moguls, whose power throttled 
India from the Moslem throne for over a thou- 
sand years. In company with Mrs. Judith W. 
Andrews, then Chairman of the Executive Com- 
mittee of the Ramabai Association, she visited 
Delhi and Agra. She wrote : — " At Agra we saw 
the great Khas Mahal, or the Emperor's private 
palace, where he kept hundreds of beautiful women 
shut up for life. The guide showed us the Rani's 
private rooms, the gardens and the grand marble 
buildings once occupied by the kings and the 
queens. He also showed us the beautiful pleasure 
tower called the Saman Burj, Jasmine Tower. 
Visitors are shown all that is beautiful there, and 
they go away carrying very pleasant impressions 
of Agra. I was not satisfied by seeing the out- 
side beauty of * those poems in marble,' but wished 
to see the dungeons where the unfortunate women 
used to be confined and hanged at the pleasure of 
the king. The guide at first denied the existence of 
such places, but finaly, on obtaining the promise to 
get a little more money for his trouble he con- 
sented to show the dungeons. He opened a trap 
door on one side and guided us about, showing us 
the many small and large underground rooms 
where the queens who had incurred the king's dis- 



48 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

pleasure used to be shut up, tortured and starved, 
until it pleased his majesty to set them free. The 
guide then lighted a big torch and took us to the 
farthest end of the prison into a room underneath 
the Jasmine tower. It was a dark, octagonal room, 
with a deep pit in the center, and a big beam placed 
in the wall, right over the pit. This beam, beauti- 
fully carved, served for hanging the unfortunate 
women of the zanana, who had by some unknown 
cause fallen under the king's displeasure, and had 
to suffer such a cruel death. Their lifeless bodies 
were let down into the pit, when the stream car- 
ried them to the waters of the Jumna, where the 
bodies were eated by crocodiles. Thus the poor, 
miserable wives of the Mogul emperors suffered 
torture and death in that dark hell pit, under that 
pleasure gallery, while their cruel masters and rivals 
sang songs, enjoyed life, and made merry, in the 
beautifully decorated Jasmine Tower above. I 
think but little of those lovely palaces, but always 
remember that dark room." 

Ivcst any should imagine that Ramabai exag- 
gerated, we will read what Doctor Bhandarkar, 
Vice Chancellor of Bombay University, an en- 
lightened Hindoo who never professed Christianity, 
but who was one of the strong supporters of the 
Sharada Sadan, said before the Indian National 
Conference in its fifth meeting, where 6000 men 
were in attendance. He declared, " The misery of 
our widows has been the subject of frequent re- 



THUS SAITH THE LAW! 49 

mark. I will therefore not detain you long by a 
full exposition of it. I will only make a general 
observation that that society which allows men to 
marry any number of times even up to the age of 
sixty, while it sternly forbids even girls of seven 
or eight to have another husband after one is dead ; 
which gives liberty to a man of fifty or sixty to 
marry a girl of eleven or twelve, which has no 
word of condemnation for the man who marries 
another wife within fifteen days after the death of 
the first, is a society which sets very little value 
upon the life of a female human being, and places 
woman on the same level with cattle, and is thus 
in an unsound condition, disqualifying it for a suc- 
cessful competition with societies with a more 
healthy constitution. Ofttimes the marriage of a 
girl under certain circumstances proves her death 
warrant.* This matter has within the last few 
years forced itself powerfully upon my observa- 
tion. A young man of thirty or thirty-five loses 
his first wife. Straightway he proceeds to marry 

* The Professor may have had in mind the case of 
Phulmani Das, the girl of eight years married to a man 
of thirty-eight who died on the very night of her mar- 
riage. The mother in her agony over the loss of her 
child told a friend of the incident, and it was spread 
abroad throughout the community. The horror of the 
event caused the enactment of a law to raise the age of 
consent to fourteen. Against this, the priests organized 
public demonstrations to protest against such an inter- 
ference with their religious customs. 



60 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

another who is a girl of ten or twelve. That girl 
dies by the time she reaches the age of twenty. 
Another takes her place immediately. She too 
dies similarly. Then comes a third who meets with 
a same fate, and a fourth is married by the per- 
severing man and is eventually left a widow be- 
fore she is out of her teens. A great many such 
cases have occurred within the last few years 
amongst our educated men. The medical men 
whom I have consulted, say that the results are 
due to the marriages being ill-assorted, i. e., to the 
great inequality between the ages of the girl and 
the strong and vigorous man. I do not know how 
else to characterize these cases, except as cases of 
Jiuman sacrifice. Surely, if the men who marry 
girls successively in this manner are educated men, 
their refined sentiments and feelings ought to make 
them spare poor, innocent girls and marry a grown 
up woman, a widow, if an unmarried one is not 
to be had." 

The Honorable Mr. Justice Rao Bahadur M. 
Ranade testifies also of his country's ideals : — " A 
Hindu widow may not remarry. Against the 
child-widow the rule prohibiting re-marriage is en- 
forced with inexorable rigour. For them there is 
no relaxation, no pity, no sympathy. But the old 
Hindu widower, who is shuddering on the verge of 
the grave may marry again and again, as often as 
he likes. For him there is no restriction — he is 
under no obligation to exercise self-restraint." 



THUS SAITH THE LAW! 61 

Ramabai knew something of the bitterness of the 
life of the widow, even though her Christian faith 
freed her from most of its trammels. It is a 
curious fact that even when she had become fa- 
mous through the establishment of her school, when 
she visited in her step-brothers' home they showed 
affection for her, and pride in her career, but the 
wife would only occasionally condescend to eat 
in the same room with the widow. On such rare 
occasions Ramabai was obliged to serve herself 
and to wash her own dishes, while the brother and 
his wife, whenever they had sat by her side, or 
touched her hand, as they sometimes did, felt it 
necessary to purify themselves from the contact 
by changing their garments before they would ven- 
ture to eat. Yet she succeeded in gaining from 
them a promise to send their two child- widow 
daughters to her school. 



Ill 

HOME-TOUCHES 

AT the close of the ten year period for which 
the pledge of support had been made 
Ramabai again came to plead her cause, this 
time not with uncertainty as to the possibilities of 
success, but in order that her enlarged ideals might 
prevail for the future development of the work. 
She felt it necessary also so to change the Articles 
of Incorporation that no longer could they be in- 
terpreted so as to prevent her from giving Chris- 
tian instruction to those who desired it. The 
strong conviction was that she should be as free 
in the exercise of her faith as she permitted those 
to be who preferred the Hindu customs and wor- 
ship. 

A large gathering came to hear her address in 
Channing Hall, Boston on March 16, 1898. The 
Pundita reported the success of the enterprise and 
acknowledged that she had incurred one great debt 
— not of money on the land or buildings; of the 
ninety-five thousand dollars which had been con- 
tributed during the decade fifty thousand have 
been given back to the Association in the value 
of the School, and ten thousand in the value of the 

52 



HOME TOUCHES 63 

Farm, — but the truly heavy debt of gratitude for 
the support and the love and faith which had been 
so generously given. She had asked in the be- 
ginning for five thousand a year for expenses ; six 
thousand had been sent, and for the enlarged work 
now possible she hoped that twenty thousand a 
year would not seem too much to give. Taking up 
the matter of the persecution which had come to 
the Sharada Sadan because of the conversion of 
certain pupils she continued : " What shall I say of 
the religious policy of the school? When I be- 
gan my work, I told you that the school would be 
entirely non-sectarian. By this I did not mean that 
it would be an irreligious school. No kind of re- 
ligious training is compulsory. We do not teach 
the Bible or the Vedas to the girls; but, as I told 
you at the beginning, I put the Bible and the Vedas 
together on the shelves of the library, and let the 
girls read for themselves if they wish. We give 
them all liberty to keep their castes and their cus- 
toms. They are not prevented from praying to 
their own gods or from wearing those gods around 
their necks if they want to, and some of the girls 
in my school do so, as I used to do years ago ; but 
I am glad to say that some light came to them, not 
from ourselves but from God. I was a Christian 
woman, I had a home, a daughter for whom I must 
make a home. I let my girls do what they liked, 
and I have the freedom with which Christ has 
made me free; and why should I keep my light 



54 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

under a bushel? When I had my family worship 
in my own room, not in the school hall, some of 
the girls began to come. Some of the Hindu 
brethren thought I was going too far, that I was 
Christianizing these girls. They wanted me to 
shut the door of my room when I was reading 
the Bible and praying. I said : ' No. I have the 
same freedom to practise my Christianity which 
those girls have to practise their religion. Why 
should I shut the door of my room, which I do 
not shut at any other time during the twenty-four 
hours of the day?' So the girls who want to 
come, come ; and, though we never preached Chris- 
tianity, they read the Bible for themselves." In 
order to remove the impression which was under- 
stood in India to bind her not to teach Christianity, 
the Ramabai Association was dissolved, and the 
property and rights were transferred to a new As- 
sociation under the title of the American Ramabai 
Association, which still exists as the official rep- 
resentative of Ramabai's work in this country, 
and which receives and disburses the bequests and 
gifts which come from those who recognize that 
the great institution which Ramabai established 
must be carried on, and that her work must be fin- 
ished by others, since its value is no longer a 
question but approved fact. 

During this visit Ramabai reported as the re- 
sult of only ten years work that she had trained 
fourteen of the High Caste Hindu widows as 



HOME TOUCHES 66 

teachers, nine of whom were in good positions, 
and two had already started schools of their own. 
Eight had been trained as nurses, two were house- 
keepers and ten happily married. Of the 350 who 
had been in the Sharada Sadan forty-eight had 
become Christians — under the unconscious influ- 
ence of Ramabai's daily life. 

The Pundita must have suffered many hardships 
as she travelled through this country, from Maine 
to California, presenting her work and organizing 
Circles for its support. It requires a strong con- 
stitution to endure the constant strain of change 
of climate and fatigue. One minor difficulty may 
be related which made her achievement quite ex- 
traordinary to those who know India. What the 
Pundita suffered because of her strict vegetarian- 
ism will never he told, as her charming courtesy 
forbade her from making her distaste known, and 
she therefore often went without sufficient food. 
Many times, as we later learned, she could touch 
nothing on the table but the potatoes ! When her 
preference became known the friends tried to have 
regard for her diet, but some most amusing ex- 
periences were hers. A luncheon arranged in her 
honor by a gracious hostess in New York called to- 
gether many distinguished women. 

Unfortunately no one had informed the lady 
of the house so it turned out that of the various 
courses every one contained some kind of flesh, 
so Ramabai touched only the bread and butter. 



56 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

Her hostess became aware of the situation and 
was much distressed. When the dessert arrived she 
announced with glee that here was something which 
the guest of the day could enjoy ! Upon Ramabai's 
return to Mukti she was describing to her girls 
some of the queer manners and customs of the 
United States^ Unconscious of the fact that among 
her listeners was an American lady, whose sense 
of humor made her delight in the situation, Rama- 
bai mentioned her occasional hunger when seated 
at tables loaded with plenty, and then told of that 
particular feast just referred to. She said that the 
hostess, smiling happily, urged her to partake of 
the dessert, a delicately browned cake heaped with 
rosy strawberries and covered with mounds of 
whipped cream ! Beautiful to look at and fragrant ! 
Ramabai was about to enjoy it when in a curious 
mood she inquired how it was made, and this is 
her report : " Fancy dear girls, what they had done ! 
Over those luscious berries they had put a cake 
made with pig oil ! " The word used in India for 
lard does not convey fully the horror which these 
dainty vegetarians felt on receiving such awful 
news, but one can imagine the shouts of laughter 
which followed as the students pondered their own 
better ways. For the pig in hot countries is an 
abhorrence and worse than any other kind of meat ! 
When Ramabai was a guest in my own home I 
prepared the best curry I could for her, hoping that 
as I had learned the art in India, also my native 



HOME TOUCHES 67 

land, it might prove acceptable. It was easy to 
see however that it did not quite meet with ap- 
proval. On pressing for the reason Ramabai's 
honesty led her to inform me that I had made 
three mistakes — first in using curry powder out of 
a bottle (though made by a leading firm) since the 
Brahmins never use anything but the fresh spices 
and peppers, secondly because I had used chicken! 
— and lastly because I had used onions, a low caste 
vegetable! We had a good laugh over all the 
blunders, and the next day I invited her into the 
kitchen to do what she pleased. I watched her as 
she daintily clarified the butter till it resembled the 
ghee used in India, to which she then added the 
spices and lastly the peppers. Let us hope that 
this one meal at least was as she desired it ! 

The second reception given to the brave pioneer 
was even more enthusiastic than on the occasion 
of her first visit. Ample support being assured 
by the American Ramabai Association, she re- 
turned to India, and with the aid of her daughter 
Manoramabai extended her activities marvelously. 
At the time of a terrible epidemic of bubonic plague 
during which Poona was sorely afflicted, she be- 
came convinced that quarters outside of the city 
were better adapted for the growing Institution, 
and with the assent of the Association she moved 
her work to a place near the village of Kedgaon, 
where she secured a large amount of land and 
erected a number of buildings, calling the whole 



68 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

establishment Mukti, or " Salvation," and where, 
during the famine, she received large numbers of 
widows and orphans, until her family numbered 
from 1500 to 2000 souls. Naturally, the form of 
her work changed, as in that time of need she 
abandoned the policy of accepting only high-caste 
girls. Much of the funds for the purchase of this 
land was sent to her from friends direct, and is 
not under the control of this Association. The 
character of her work necessarily changed. These 
famine-striken, neglected children and older widows 
were not ready for the high-school work which 
the pupils of the Sharada Sadan were taking, and 
it was therefore necessary to begin industrial work. 
From that time on this has been a noted feature 
of the great establishment. Not only is the cook- 
ing for this large number done by the girls, but 
the weaving of their clothing is carried on in a 
number of low buildings, where the cotton is 
carded, spun, and dyed, and then woven into the 
neat saris (dresses) for the large establishment. 
One set of girls weave in the mornings, going to 
school in the afternoons, while others, enjoying the 
morning session, keep the looms busy in the after- 
noons. I found it a charming sight to see the 
bright-colored cottons flashing in the Chakkas 
looms, and the swift brown hands sending the 
shuttle to and fro. Improved American churns 
have been imported for the making of butter, and 




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HOME TOUCHES 69 

Ramabai has a large farm on which vegetables 
and fruit are raised for the establishment. Carpet- 
making is being introduced also. 

In all this work Ramabai was fortunate in hav- 
ing the full sympathy and cooperation of her 
gifted daughter, Manoramabai, who after a course 
in the Chesboro Seminary returned to India and 
later completed her college course in Bombay Uni- 
versity. The tie between mother and daughter 
became one of those rare friendships that charm 
the onlooker. Mano existed only for the joy of 
helping her mother and to fulfill her plans. Rama- 
bai in turn so trusted Mano that she gave to her 
the administration of the Sharada Sadan, and in- 
deed, the oversight of the school work, while she 
devoted her attention to the general administration, 
for the various departments coming out of the 
famine conditions required generalship to keep all 
at work and all happy and healthy. In later years 
the routine of necessity became very exact. We 
are fortunate to have Ramabai' s own description 
of her day's work : " The big church bell rang at 
4 a. m., to rouse everybody from sleep. I was up. 
At 4:30 I walked out of my room to the church, 
where I saw the pupil teachers and some of the 
new girls assembled for prayer and Bible study. 
They sang a hymn after which I read the Bible les- 
son and explained. Prayers were offered, and the 
meeting was closed with the Lord's Prayer. It is 



60 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

6:15 a.m. The pupil teachers have gone to take 
their breakfast, and to prepare for school. All of 
us workers, too, have to take our breakfast at this 
time, The new girls rose at 5 a.m. : their matrons 
helped them to put their bedding in good order and 
to sweep the sleeping rooms. The girls who do the 
washing for the little girls and for the invalids 
have tied up their bundles of clothes, taken them 
up, and placed them on their heads. Water is 
drawn from the well in large leather buckets. Four 
pair of bullocks and three men are helping to draw 
it. The water is poured into two tanks, whence 
it flows into the garden to water the fruit, plants, 
and vegetables. Here in these tanks all the wash- 
ing is done in the morning, and the clothes are 
dried in the sun. Some of the girls gather up the 
clothes, and, after taking their bath and washing 
their saris, the washerwomen return home at about 
eleven o'clock, take their mid-day meal, and go to 
school. 

" The pupil teachers, after breakfast, go to 
school. At 8 a.m., some classes of the Rescue 
Home girls come to the school-room to learn their 
lessons till 10 a.m., and go to bathe. The large 
girls of the Mukti Home have gone to have their 
bath while the little girls were having their break- 
fast. Now it is their turn to have their breakfast 
while the smaller girls are having their bath. One 
of the older girls, who is a teacher now, is going 



HOME TOUCHES 61 

around the grounds watching the sanitary condi- 
tions, directing the sweepers how to keep the place 
clean. She also goes around the dormitories and 
sees that the bedding, etc., of the girls in each class 
is kept in good order. It is her duty to report to me 
if the general cleanliness of the establishment is 
neglected. 

" I walked around the place, saw the workmen 
engaged in the work at the proper places, directed 
the foreman to make certain improvements in some 
places, to dig the foundation of a new room to 
be built near the lamp room, directed the gardener 
to plant trees in one part of the ground and to 
take out some trees, which came too near the build- 
ing, and plant them in another place. Went to in- 
spect the hospital grounds. At 10 a.m. the pupil 
teachers have finished their morning lessons. They 
rise from their desks to make room for the other 
girls, there not being room for all at one time, and 
a host of new girls of all sizes are seen going to 
the school-room. In ten minutes they are seated 
in their proper places, slates and pencils have been 
distributed, the blackboards are before them, and 
the teachers have begun a fresh lesson. The kinder- 
garten department has begun its interesting work. 
The head girl who directs the pupil teachers in 
this department is in a bad temper, and has left 
her work abruptly, so it falls to my share to go and 
teach in the kindergarten to-day. The children 



62 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

are learning the Third Gift. The bell is ringing.' 
The morning session of the school has come to a 
close, and the girls are going out of the school- 
rooms to have their mid-day meal. The new girls 
are gathering again in their respective classes to 
have another two hours' instruction. The pupil 
teachers have gone to their study in the school- 
room. Some classes from among the new girls 
have gone to grind grain to make flour for bread. 
About sixty hand-mills, in two large grinding- 
rooms, are being worked at. 

** At 3 p. M. the bell rings for all the girls to come 
together in church, to attend the singing class. 
They come from all sides with their matrons. The 
little ones and middle-sized girls are most anxious 
to learn singing. At 4 p.m. the girls go out of the 
singing class to their rooms, take their platter, 
cups, etc., go to the tank to wash their hands and 
take water in their drinking vessels, and go to the 
dining-rooms, where they are led by the matrons 
in the proper order. When the chief matron rings 
a small bell to call order and to say grace, all girls 
stand, fold their hands, bend their heads reverently, 
and ask God's blessing. Supper is over at 6 p.m., 
and they have a little time for play. SomxC are 
walking about, some sitting in the open ground, 
some dancing and singing and enjoying themselves. 
Some chat in the garden, and inspect flowers and 
leaves. They are beginning to love flowers. A 



HOME TOUCHES 63 

year ago they used to tear up the leaves of the 
flower plants and break the branches of the grow- 
ing trees. 

" Night has come. The bell for retiring is ring- 
ing. The girls hurry off from the garden to their 
respective dormitories. Each one spreads her bed- 
ding of a little carpet, a sheet, and two blankets. 
They are preparing to lie down and go off to sleep. 
But before going to bed they kneel down, either by 
themselves or around their matrons, and pray 
aloud. These new girls, babes in Christ, are just 
beginning to understand what praying means. 
Their expressions are very funny at times. They 
mean well. Some wee babes who are beginning 
to lisp are repeating just one verse from the 
twenty-third Psalm over and over again, ' The 
Lord is my Shepherd. I shall NOT W-A-A-ANT.' 
Great stress is laid on the last two words. The 
poor little things have known too well what want 
means. At eight the bell rings again, when all the 
girls are in bed." 

The institution was divided into three parts, — 
Mukti, or the general Orphanage or School for all 
who may come ; Kripa Sadan, or the Home of Ref- 
uge, for those whose lives have been unsheltered be- 
fore they came to her ; and the Sharada Sadan, or 
the high-school department, which was kept quite 
separate from the others and which is the institu- 
tion which the American Association supports. In 



64 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

this to-day there are two hundred and four stu- 
dents, and the teachers are wholly those trained in 
the institution. From these institutions have gone 
out teachers to other schools in many parts of India. 
Another occasion for rejoicing is that many of 
these young women, coming as child-widows, hav- 
ing been educated and their characters built up into 
beautiful womanliness, have since been married and 
are making happy homes for themselves. Some, 
indeed are attempting to carry out Ramabai's plans 
by inaugurating similar institutions on a small 
scale, one in the city of Poona being conducted on 
strictly Hindu lines with caste rules and regula- 
tions. 

A school for the blind is one of the features of 
the establishment; and, as Ramabai's great heart 
never refused the afflicted, and deaf and dumb have 
also found an asylum under her loving care. It is 
impossible to tell what was the power of this little 
woman to attract the love and obedience of the 
hundreds of daughters. One can only say that she 
was endowed with the gift of loving and, there- 
fore, of being loved. Her work has not been con- 
fined to what has been done within the walls of 
Mukti. The people of India have been compelled 
to change their views on the subject of the educa- 
tion of women within the last twenty-five years, 
and the success of Ramabai's work has been a very 
large factor in this change. She used to relate the 



HOME TOUCHES 65 

.story of a prince who visited her to reproach her 
for abjuring the faith of her fathers. The sight 
of the happy children seemed to arouse the ire of 
his highness, but he voiced the feeUngs of many 
v^hen he contemptuously exclaimed : " A school for 
widows ! What right have they to have happiness 
or education? Those who have no husbands or 
sons to serve are of no more value than the street 
dogs and crows, and might as well live like them. 
They can easily get a grain of bread and a handful 
of rice to subsist upon." 

It is a sad pity that the answer to this is not re- 
corded, for with her keen mind and wit there must 
have been some scathing truth presented to his 
Highness ! 



IV 

LIFE STORIES 

THE stories of some of the students in the 
Sharada Sadan are absorbing. Many have 
appeared in the Annual Reports of the As- 
sociation. Manorama made a trip to the United 
States in 1890, and spoke at the Annual Meeting 
of the Association, giving the following incidents. 

" I would like to tell of the lives of some of our 
girls who have afterwards proved to be most use- 
ful helpers. One was married when she was five 
years old to a man of forty-five and she be- 
came a widow when she was six. Then she lived 
with her husband's brother who kept a country inn 
in Central India. As the child grew up she had 
to do much of the work of the house. When not 
more than ten she was obliged, besides all the other 
work, to go to a well about a quarter of a mile 
from the house a number of times a day to bring 
water in the copper jars. She carried one on her 
head, one on her hip and one in her hand. Then 
she had to wait on the guests who came to the 
inn, and sometimes when she had gone to bed at 
eleven she would have to get up because guests 



LIFE STORIES 67 

had come. She must get warm water for them to 
wash their feet, and make them comfortable. Her 
life was perfect misery. She tried to run away, 
but she did not know the country, and all she could 
do was to run a little way and sit down on the 
roadside and cry until people found her and took 
her home to be beaten cruelly. At last somebody 
took pity on her and she was brought to our school. 
She remained about seven years and got an educa- 
tion sufficient to make her self supporting. She 
has been married to a native Christian man and 
is very happy. She and her husband are trying to 
do all they can for their people. Her own idea is 
to help little widows. 

Then T., a fine scholar, came from, South India. 
She knows many languages, two of the dialects of 
the places where she lived, and she had to learn 
Marathi. Then she studies Sanscrit and English, 
and now takes Latin. She was married when only 
eight, but says that the only time she remembers 
seeing her husband was at the marriage. She 
intends to open a school for widows. 

Y. was married when quite young and lived in 
an orthodox Hindu family. Her brother brought 
his wife to our school, but would not bring Y. 
because she was a widow. One of her duties was 
to go every morning to get water from a well. 
About the same time a man living next door started 
for business. In India it is considered unlucky for 



68 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

a widow to cross one's path, the work of the whole 
day Is undone by it. So the man complained and 
said he would not allow it. One incident which 
she told of her life is a bit amusing. A widow is 
supposed to fast regularly once a week, and once a 
month she fasts so strictly that she is not allowed 
even to drink a drop of water. When the time 
comes for her to take her first meal she is al- 
lowed only to eat bread made of a certain kind of 
flour. Y. had been fasting this way and when it 
was time for her to eat she asked her sister-in-law 
for some of the flour. The answer was that there 
was no flour of the kind in the house. Y. begged 
for she was very hungry but the sister-in-law after 
making a feint of searching said there was no 
flour. According to Hindu philosophy a man must 
not speak what is not true, but there are five cases 
in which he may tell a lie. One of these is that he 
may say what is not true to a woman. The next 
day Y. found a large sack of this particular flour 
and could not understand why her sister-in-law 
should have said this, but supposed it was a mat- 
ter of reUgion and therefore all right. Later she 
came to our school and is so much touched by the 
kind way in which she is treated that she says she 
cannot understand why you are so kind to a 
widow." 

" J. is the girl who wants to learn everything. 
Her head had been shaven and she had been disfig- 



LIFE STORIES 69 

ured in many ways so that she looked miserable. 
When I saw her again after my absence of some 
months I did not know her. She had long beautiful 
hair and was a very pretty girl, and so happy that 
I did not recognize her. One day somebody said 
to her, " J. are you not tired ? " " No, I no tired, I 
praising God." That is what keeps her happy. 

Touched with compassion for the widows who 
were kept in the Shrine city of Brindaban, the re- 
puted birthplace of Krishna, Ramabai, accompanied 
by a friend, went to see the conditions,. Priests met 
them at the station, and choosing one as guide to 
find them shelter for the night, they were taken to 
a small dirty room where without food they waited 
for the dawn. As soon as light appeared they at- 
tempted to bathe in the river Jumna, but its sacred 
waters that cleanse the soul of all sin appeared to 
them as too filthy for their bodies. Its banks were 
covered with dunghills and the streets and alleys 
filled with intolerable odors. For two weeks the 
Pundita lived in this center of Hindusim going in 
and out, suspected because she did not visit the 
temples and offer worship to the many gods, but, 
protected by the mendicant's dress, she attempted 
to rescue some of the hundreds of widows. The 
younger widows were taught that the life of sin 
was pleasing to the god Krishna and that service 
in the temple would lead to a life of happiness here- 
after. Those who resist are left to care for them- 



70 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

selves as best they may. Some starve to death, 
many commit suicide. No wonder that Ramabai 
exclaimed, " Oh the sin and misery of it all ! The 
heartless cruelty of man to woman which I saw on 
every side is beyond description. I thought I had 
seen the Sodom and Gomorrah of the old times 
and I wondered at the long suffering of God." 

Seven of the widows would have been glad to 
leave and accompany Ramabai, but their plans were 
discovered and they were placed under lock and 
key by the priests. One only could be rescued, 
and the strain of the experience almost cost the life 
of the heroic Pandita ! 

As a high-caste woman, as previously stated, 
Ramabai was a strict vegetarian and continued the 
practice after her Christian ideals had Hberated her 
from the enforcement of this. By preference she 
avoided meat and even eggs, using milk, the fruits 
of vine and field. Her skill in cookery made her 
menus for the students very attractive and whole- 
some. An American visitor described the domestic 
arrangements : " Go with me into the dining room 
and see the girls at breakfast. On each side of the 
room is a row of * plats,' square pieces of wood, 
well finished, having a knob at each comer to raise 
it slightly from the floor. On each of these a pupil 
is seated on one side of the room. On the other 
side sits Ramabai and the teachers. On the floor 
in front of each a brass plate and bowl are placed. 



LIFE STORIES 71 

One of the girls appointed to serve at this meal 
drops a spoonful of fried vegetables on the plate, 
another follows with boiled rice, a third with 
vegetable curry and a fourth with a teaspoonful of 
melted butter. These are dextrously mixed by 
even the youngest child. Then rice with sour but- 
termilk is served and unleavened bread with melted 
butter. Milk is given to all who desire, the children 
and the delicate girls having an extra quantity. 
This is the diet morning, noon and night year in 
and year out, except that at tiffin the variety is less. 
On holidays there is a treat of fruit and very simple 
sweetmeats. . . . Everything in the dining room 
is as neat and orderly as it is simple. Into the 
kitchen we cannot enter; it would be profanation 
(to the high caste workers therein). But into the 
dormitories and sick wards we may look and shall 
find there neatness, order and good ventilation." 

The first student to come to Ramabai was little 
Godubai, who had twice resolved to put an end to 
her unhappy life, but was restrained by the fear of 
being born again a woman! Four years of Rama- 
bai's influence and the joyous life of the Sharada 
Sadan and she was married to Mr. D. K. Karve, 
and together they established a work for child- 
widows on the lines learned at the Sadan. A letter 
from Mr. Karve is so clear that we quote briefly: 
"It is not easy to mention all the numerous 
advantages which my wife derived from her stay 



72 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

of four years at the Sadana. She has come out of 
it with a keen love of knowledge and a mind en- 
larged and enlightened. In the time she was there 
she learned Marathi up to the fif.th standard and 
English up to the third standard. This instruc- 
tion is in the first place highly useful to her, and 
secondly it has filled her with a desire to learn 
more, a desire which I am doing all in my power 
to gratify. Her views about life and our work in 
this world have also been materially altered. She 
has become free from many of our degrading su- 
perstitions. She feels that she has been raised 
to a sphere where she can render good work for 
her more unfortunate sisters; and life seems now 
a blessing instead of a curse. I find that she is 
an excellent housewife. The habits of neatness 
and order which she acquired in the Sadana are of 
great use in managing our domestic affairs. In 
short, I find her to be an excellent wife and an 
excellent companion in life, and feel sure that in her 
company in the natural course of things many 
happy days are in store for me." 

Manoramabai at all times manifested a sympa- 
thy with the students of the Sadan. She writes: 
" Soon after the World War broke out a request 
was made by Lady Wimbledon to the women of 
Bombay Province that they should help her in 
doing as much as possible for the relief of wounded 
soldiers. The students in the Sharada Sadan were 
keenly interested in the progress of the war. 




Manoramabai — Heart's Joy 



LIFE STORIES 73 

Many were sufficiently educated to understand the 
situation and they talked and prayed about current 
events. This in an American home might not have 
been surprising, but in an Indian home of thirty 
years ago it would have been an almost unheard of 
thing for women to engage intelligently in such a 
conversation." Mano continues: 

" We have blind girls, and for some time I have 
been feeling that I could do better work in this de- 
partment if I could have someone to help me. A 
lady has come from England who has had train- 
ing in a Blind School .... We are trying to start 
a silk industry. My mother has planted a number 
of mulberry trees and castor oil plants, and we have 
a number of worms spinning their coccoons in 
baskets made by our girls. 

" During the last hot weather vacation, I took a 
party of 15 to Mahableshwar for a few days. Liv- 
ing as we do here in this village away from the 
city with its civilization and all its modern improve- 
ments, we sometimes find it difficult to explain to 
our girls the books which they read, because their 
ideas of many things are so vague. For instance, 
some have never seen the sea, some do not remem- 
ber ever being in a train, some have never seen a 
river or a waterfall or a high mountain; a tele- 
phone, an electric lamp, a tramcar, an elevator, a 
large English shop, and many other things are to 
them things only in name, and we find that the easi- 
est way to explain them is by taking parties of girls 



74, PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

to Bombay or to some other place of interest where 
they will be able to see things for themselves. 
There is an old fort in Gulbarga which is an ob- 
ject of great interest. I often take one or two 
girls with me when I go there and let them study 
the place. We had a good laugh once in Bombay 
when a girl about eighteen years old who was pre- 
paring for her College Entrance examination saw 
the sea for the first time and drank some of its 
water, forgetting that it would be salt. She had 
read about it but had forgotten ! " 




V 
SCHOLAR, SAINT, SERVANT. 

'ES, the order is right. The distinguished 
woman whose life is here briefly portrayed 
was first a scholar of no mean achievement, 
master of seven languages, with more than two 
thousand verses of the Vedas at the command of 
her wonderful memory, giving public addresses 
in English as well as to audiences in the vernaculars 
of India — acclaimed Sarasvati — yes, scholar is her 
first title and well deserved! 

Saint? Yes, also, for unembittered by the sore 
trial of her girlhood by the loss of all that life 
held dear in the way of family ties, purified by the 
limitations which the religious customs of her land 
placed upon her, and seeing through the mist of 
Hindu ideals the true God to whom her father di- 
rected his prayers ! Saintly in character then and 
developed as she found the Christ who is the 
propitiation for the sin of the whole world. 

Servant — verily! For did she not put aside 
thought of worldly promotion and gain that she 
might place her hands under the burden of the 
hoary centuries of oppression of the child-widows 
and later the starving and the afflicted. '' I am 

75 



76 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

among you as one that serveth," was the word of 
her Master, and she followed Him. Against the 
ideal of doing good by renunciation and austerity 
for the sake of laying up merit for her future, she 
served for the sake of the One whose life and ex- 
ample met all the needs of her own heart, and 
whose love encompasses the entire race of men. 
" I am among you as he that serveth," said her 
Christ. Following Him and Him alone she was 
definitely led into the path of service — a unique 
service, as Dr. Edward Everett Hale said in an 
address to the Association : " Ramabai dedicated 
herself to this work as Luther dedicated himself to 
the reformation of the church, so that she will stand 
out in history as one of those remarkable persons 
taking a hand in particular work. 

" General Armstrong, perhaps the greatest edu- 
cator of his generation in this country, always said 
that the business of the Hampton Institute was to 
create a class among the blacks — a class of people 
every man and woman of which shall be interested 
in the education of the blacks. This little woman is 
creating a class of women in India every blessed 
one of whom shall be interested in the education of 
child- widows." 

At the beginning o£ her work Ramabai was ac- 
customed to say that she could have both the Bible 
and the Veda on the shelves of her school and 
pupils might read what they chose. Later the Bible 
became more and more the guide of the daily liv- 



SCHOLAR, SAINT AND SERVANT 77 

ing of the Mukti schools, but from choice, not 
compulsion. 

Ramabai's high reputation as a Sanscrit scholar 
gave her rare opportunities. When on the occasion 
of the first meeting of the National Congress in 
Bombay in 1889 among the two thousand dele- 
gates were three women, largely because of the 
Pundita's influence. This national congress was 
convened for the purpose of the spirit of unity 
among the diverse races of Hindustan and for call- 
ing the attention of the British Government to ex- 
isting grievances and needed reforms. Ramabai 
spoke forcibly on two resolutions passed, one re- 
lating to marriage and the other to the shaving of 
the head of the widow. She dwelt on the injustice 
of depriving the widow of her property if she mar- 
ried again. With her usual courage she denounced 
as a wild superstition the belief that if the widows 
wore their hair long it would serve to bind their 
husbands in hell, and asked the men how they 
would like to have their heads shaved because of 
the death of a wife! When she arose to speak 
there was much crowding and pushing among the 
men who desired to hear her. After quiet was re- 
stored she naively remarked, " It is not strange, my 
countrymen, that my voice is small, for you have 
never given a woman the chance to make her voice 
strong!'' She then rushed along in a rapid talk, 
moving her audience to laughter and tears. The 
resolutions she thus supported were carried by a 



78 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

large majority, and the request that the members 
of the Conference pledge themselves not to allow 
marriage until the bride had completed her four- 
teenth year was also carried by a large majority. 

Her action at this Conference created such in- 
terest that she received invitations to lecture in dis- 
tant cities. She therefore made a long tour speak- 
ing on education and with direct reference to the 
child widow problem. 

It is gratifying to note that some Hindus were 
liberal enough to recognize her scholarship even 
after she became a Christian. At Barsi she was in- 
vited to lecture and a meeting was arranged in a 
hall — but the women did not dare to come. The 
men then urged her to read for them the Hindu 
sacred books. She said, with characteristic frank- 
ness — " All right, I have, like Paul of old, to be a 
Jew for the Jews and a Greek for the Greeks ! " 
Selecting a portion of one of the Puranas she read 
and explained to the crowd of men and the few 
women, and so delighted were the auditors that ar- 
rangements were immediately made for this "• semi- 
religious " lecture to be repeated that afternoon in 
the temple. Ramabai's sense of the ludricous came 
to her aid here as in many other occasions — she 
wrote, " Here was the climax ! Nobody had ever 
seen or heard of the orthodox Hindu letting a 
Christian outcast enter his sacred temple! The 
people of Barsi not only allowed me to go to their 
temple but besought me to go and read a portion 



SCHOLAR, SAINT AND SERVANT 79 

of their sacred book ! I thought this a nineteenth 
century miracle." So wise was the Pundita in 
the use of the opportunity that the women pressed 
her to stay longer with them. 

It is encouraging to find that many enlighted 
people among those of Hindu faith did welcome 
this apostle of a brighter day. A Madras paper 
thus characterized the distinguished visitor to that 
city " Pundita Ramabai combines in herself what 
even in men in India is rare: — a deep knowledge 
of the Hindu Shastras and also an intimate ac- 
quaintance with the life, thought and speech of the 
most advanced nations of the West. For several 
centuries a lady Sanyasi so learned and so devoted 
to the elevation of her sex as Ramabai has not 
appeared on the stage of Indian life. In spite of 
her conversion to Christianity the simple and un- 
ostentatious life she is at present leading, her earn- 
est eloquence in a sacred cause, and the invincible 
front she presents to orthodoxy by her citations 
from the Vedas and Puranas, would in any other 
country but India, in any other age but the pres- 
ent one of extreme selfishness, have sufficed to 
create a moral and social revolution; but even in 
the degenerate times in which our lot is cast, we 
are hopeful that the pleadings of the Pundita will 
remind our educated men of their duty to women- 
kind." 

In other cities Ramabai was received with 
high honors, feted, and garlanded with flowers, 



80 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

and sprinkled with perfumed water. It was the 
answer to the centuries of mute protest of India's 
women against inhuman cruelty, — the protest 
that was at last voiced in the eloquent life of 
one heroic woman, who gathered the miseries of 
her sisters into her own heart and turned them 
into the sweetness of hope and the strength of 
prophecy. 

The Editor of the Bombay Educational Record 
published the following: "If the election of Mr. 
Nauroji to Parliament was a romantic incident, 
as The Times says, what epithet, we wonder, should 
be applied to the journey to America of an unpro- 
tected Hindu widow, to her loving reception by 
American ladies, to the formation of Ramabai 
Circles, to the return of the wanderer to India, but 
with links binding her to America, and finally to 
the installation a few days ago of a Sharada Sadan 
in a building of its own with an assured income, 
that will enable it to carry on its beneficient work. 
Romantic is no word for it! It is gratifying to 
know that all that is best in native society is in 
hearty sympathy with the work of the gifted and 
brave Maratha lady. The race which can produce 
such a woman certainly need to dispair of nothing, 
and the whole pathetic story, so creditable as it is 
to America, gives one quite a new conception of the 
possibilities which seem to lie in the future from 
the increasing recognition of the solidarity of man- 
kind." The utterances of the Subodha Patrika 



SCHOLAR, SAINT AND SERVANT 81 

are yet more significant. '' The history of Pundita 
Ramabai School may well deserve to be v/ritten in 
characters of gold. It is a Hindu woman's pluck 
which brought it into existence and it is American 
generosity which supports it." 

Even the task of guiding the lives of her im- 
mense family, of directing the industries, farm 
work, printing, weaving, etc., in which every girl 
was trained unless she was found to be especially 
well adapted to the teaching profession, was not 
enough for this great hearted leader. She looked 
beyond the walls of her mission upon the needy 
folk of her race, the Marathi people. The ordinary 
villager was not able to understand the language 
of the translation of the Bible as it is in the 
classical Marathi, so well adapted to the demands 
of the educated, so she determined to give the 
people a translation in the vulgate — the every day 
speech of the villagers. In order to understand 
perfectly the meaning of the original she spent 
some years in preparing an interlinear translation 
of five different versions of the words and idioms 
of the Old Testament, and her preparation was as 
thorough for the New. To supplement her own 
knowledge of Greek and Hebrew she had several 
students make a special study of each language and 
with these set herself to her great task. All the 
printing required was done by the girls in the press 
at Mukti; and when one thinks of the multifarious 
characters, Roman, Marathi, Greek and Hebrew 



82 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

type used in the typesetting, the greatness of the 
achievement becomes almost incredible. Not 
seventy translators, but Ramabai alone with her 
students made this version! And she did it well! 
The support of her beloved daughter Manoramabai 
made possible the leisure necessary for this 
task. After Mano had finished her course in Bom- 
bay University she took entire charge of the school 
work in the various departments, and with the aid 
of teachers raised almost entirely from the institu- 
tion brought the work of the Sharada Sadan up to 
Government requirements — a course somewhat like 
that of our American High School. 

Intensely loyal to her own land and people, 
Ramabai had the national spirit; but she recog- 
nized that only by taking the best of all the world's 
store of learning and gifts could India be restored 
to its former greatness. At first she steadfastly re- 
fused to accept Government aid for her school, in 
the belief that she would be more free if she did 
not attempt to comply with the conditions laid 
down by the Educational Laws. But after almost 
twenty years she became convinced that these plans 
were really best for the educational development of 
the people, so she adapted her work to the Govern- 
ment conditions and recognized their efforts made 
for the intellectual elevation of her country. The 
idea of keeping living conditions simple in order 
that the burden ot poorer people might not be 
made heavier was always paramount in her mind. 



SCHOLAR, SAINT AND SERVANT 83 

The looms in her institution were the " chakkas " 
of the village, the oil presses were such as used by 
the people, the farm work was carried on with na- 
tive tools except where she recognized the superior 
advantage of foreign implements for increasing 
the yield of the fields; her students worked in the 
printing office and on the presses, learning not 
only the lighter tasks, but how to care for the 
mechanical equipment, being taught by expert ma- 
chinists. The growth of the settlement around 
Mukti soon entitled it to be recognized as a village, 
and Ramabai was appointed " Lambadar," the of- 
ficial head. 

In 1919 the British Government awarded to 
Pundita Ramabai the Kaiser-I-Hind medal for dis- 
tinguished service to Indian education. The value 
to the country of her initiative in providing for 
the lessening of economic waste by her demonstra- 
tion that the millions of widows might be educated 
and thus made valuable to the community, instead 
of being a burden to the family and a blight on the 
nation, was thus fitly recognized. Ramabai' s health 
at the time did not permit her to go to Bombay 
for the ceremony of conferring this high honor, 
so Manoramabai received it for her. 

Manoramabai extended the influence of the 
Sharada Sadan by establishing, about eight years 
ago, another school at Gulbarga, in the Nizam's 
dominions, which has done fine work, the daughters 
of leading men of the region being enrolled. Other 



84 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

schools have sprung up in different parts of India, 
which owe their initiative directly to Ramabai's 
influence ; of these some are not Christian, but they 
are working for the elevation of the widows and 
thus carrying on her ideals. 

Mano's activities in other directions were mani- 
fold. With a companion she made trips to 
Australia and New Zealand, presenting the work 
with great acceptability, and Circles formed under 
this inspiration have contributed generously to the 
support of the Sharada Sadan. 

In 1920 the building held by the Association in 
Poona was sold for seventy-two thousand Rupees, 
of which twelve thousand was placed in Ramabai's 
hands and sixty thousand invested in India under 
the care of Dr. R. A. Hume, the representative of 
the Association, for the support of the Sharada 
Sadan, for this institution must continue its work, 
and funds will still be needed from the friends who 
believe in the value of education for India's women. 

All plans of the Association as well as those of 
Ramabai looked towards the continuance of the 
work under the direction of her gifted daughter, 
Manoramabai. Heart's Joy she had in every deed 
proven herself to be, taking from her mother the 
strain of every possible duty she could perform, 
working in fullest sympathy and with marked suc- 
cess. However, God's plan was different. Her fail- 
ing health had for some time been a cause of anx- 
iety, and in spite of the most tender care given at 



SCHOLAR, SAINT AND SERVANT 86 

the Hospital at Miraj, her constitution was unable 
to sustain the burden of work which she had so 
bravely carried. An operation was resorted to, 
but her heart was not equal to the strain and she 
went quietly to the heavenly country towards which 
her thoughts and love had constantly turned. The 
stricken mother was noble in this affliction, which 
meant indescribable loss to her work as well as to 
her loving heart. She wrote to the officers of the 
Association " Let me thank you for your loving 
sympathy. All I have to say is * The Lord gave 
and the Lord has taken away, Blessed be the name 
of the Lord.' 

" There are 360 pupils studying in the Sharada 
Sadan, the Primary and the Kindergarten. This 
work shall be continued as long as God gives us 
grace and strength. The school was well organized 
and brought to its present state by my daughter, 
who has gone to the next world before me ! One 
of her last acts was to make the time tables for 
the school before it recommenced in June. She 
attended the meeting of the Trustees and spoke 
and arranged for the next meeting to be held 
shortly, saying that though she would not be here 
to attend the session as she was going to the hos- 
pital ; but all the business would be carried on in due 
order, as she had arranged for everything." These 
words were almost prophetic, for Manoramabai 
passed into the presence of the King before the 
next meeting took place. 



86 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

Though the bereaved mother carried her grief 
so courageously, the effect of the sorrow, however 
bravely borne, and the loss of the support which 
Mano had so unfailingly given, proved too much 
for a constitution which, strong in the beginning, 
had been enfeebled by the rigors of her many 
pilgrimages and the austerities of her early life. 
Soon after sending to the Association the Annual 
Report of the Sharada Sadan she quietly appointed 
as her successor Miss Lissa Hastie, an English 
friend who had worked with her for the past 
twelve years and who is in full sympathy with her 
ideals. On April 5th came the cable which an- 
nounced " Ramabai Promoted." 

Yes, promoted to the service above! What a 
welcome from, the thousands whose lives she had 
touched with blessings^ — the little ones, the famine 
stricken, the blind and the leper; all these had re- 
ceived ministry from her hands. 

The funeral service was conducted by Rev. R. 
A. Hume, of Amednagar, the representative of the 
Association in India, and a life long friend of 
Ramabai's, assisted by Rev. W. W. Bruere, acting 
pastor at Mukti. The simple casket was carried 
on the shoulders of the young women of Mukti, and 
the thousand students of Mukti followed to the vil- 
lage cemetery a quarter of a mile distant. Over 
the coffin was a white cloth on which was in- 
scribed, " We shall all be changed, the trumpet 
shall sound and the dead shall be raised incor- 



SCHOLAR, SAINT AND SERVANT 87 

ruptible, and we shall be changed." On the cover 
of the casket was the inscription " The Pundita 
Ramabai Medhavi — born April 23, 1858; slept 
April 5, 1922." 

Remarkable was the self control of those who 
might naturally have been expected to indulge in 
the Oriental emotional excess, instead of which 
there was notable effort at self control, and while 
there were occasional outbreaks of crying it was 
evident that the faith and the teachings of the be- 
loved mother had impressed upon them the lesson 
of the rising again to blessed immortality. 

This remarkable woman had held her mind open 
to new truths, and therefore was sometimes in dan- 
ger of being influenced by some who held extreme 
views. From this danger her characteristic com- 
mon sense released her, and, without adopting any 
special creed, her Christianity was of that type 
which embraces with warm affection every other 
follower of her Ivord and King. The very breath 
of her being was for the Master, and her motto 
of life " Others," was the index of her wide af- 
fection. The name she gave to her mission was 
Mukti — Salvation — and the deep spiritual life 
which was manifest in the daily program cannot be 
forgotten by those who have been privileged to 
witness it. The effect of the voices of fifteen hun- 
dred girls and women united in vocal prayer, each 
asking for the needs of their own hearts without 
attention to those about them, was a unique ex- 



88 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

perience, and one which called for no criticism of 
the apparent confusion of sound, but a questioning 
as to the effect which such earnestness had on the 
hearts of those who could shut out self and com- 
mune with their Father in Heaven. India has 
much to teach to us of the more self-conscious 
western world. 

Though unable to hear the religious services, 
Ramabai was always present if health permitted, 
and the very sight of the white robed figure seated 
in prayer and meditation was a benediction to all 
her family as well as to the visitors to Mukti, who 
came from all lands of the earth to witness and 
marvel at the work of one woman's hands and 
mind. Yet with all she was very human, and her 
extraordinary executive ability which kept every- 
thing moving in perfect order and harmony did not 
make her stem and unlovely. 

Miss Fuller, one of her younger associates at 
Mukti, gives this charming picture of the beloved 
leader : " She was a heroine even to her daily help^ 
ers. She was one of the finest types of the Kon- 
kansth Brahmins, finely organized, very keen in 
all her senses imtil she became deaf as a result 
of sleeping on damp earth during her pilgrimages 
before she became a Christian. Not much over 
five feet in height, small boned and very shapely, 
with a remarkable presence, beautiful for its un- 
conscious dignity and modesty. She always wore 
white cotton saris, token of her widowhood (her 



SCHOLAR, SAINT AND SERVANT 89 

hair short for the same reason). Her Httle feet 
that had walked over four thousand miles on pil- 
grimages were our delight. Whatever she did she 
did with delicate accuracy, grace and charm. 
Whether she corrected proofs, or fed a baby, or 
listened to a bore, she was exquisite. Her name 
means " Delight " with the double sense of Delight- 
Giver or Delight-Filled, and her faculty for enjoy- 
ment was one of the proofs of her humanness. 
Her sense of humour was a quenchless fountain 
and she had the most infectious laugh! I have 
been told that years ago when she was with a 
certain very entertaining friend they would both 
laugh until they could no longer sit up. One might 
be very bold with her if one were humorous. H 
one told her she was wonderful, one was gravely 
suppressed. But once when I remarked on her 
cleverness, using an idiom with two meanings, she 
promptly chose the imflattering sense and shook 
with laughter. She could be very droll. When 
she was too ill to talk much, she would send us 
into fits of laughter sometimes with one absurd 
gesture — made with the utmost dignity of her 
delicate hands. Bai was always doing thoughtful 
pretty things, and I have never in this world known 
anyone so generous, so big-hearted, so lavish- 
hearted. She was almost constitutionally incapa- 
ble of selling anything. With the exception of the 
great joy she always had in telling her country- 
men of her adored Saviour and Master Jesus 



90 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

Christ, in seeing any of them find Him, and in 
translating, printing on her own presses and giv- 
ing out (gratis always) the Bible or portions of 
it, there was nothing which gave her so much 
pleasure as giving. Doubtless her own experi- 
ences of hunger in famine time deepened the 
satisfaction she felt in satisfying hunger in others. 
She simply could not understand meanness and 
selfishness." 

She loved children and children went to her 
as needles to a magnet. Many a baby at Mukti, 
some of them now half -grown, has been fed and 
bathed with her own hands, not occasionally, but 
week in and week out. And many a girl and 
woman could boast that " Sarasvatidevi " had 
sponged and rubbed her down in fever and sent her 
tidbits from her own plate. Bai has written a lit- 
tle song for children about twO' of her cats who 
used to quarrel because one of them would nurse 
the other's kitten and its own proper mother ob- 
jected. She wrote many other such songs for 
Muldnyana, the primer she wrote and published 
for village children. She took six months from 
her Bible translation to write the poetry, the read- 
ing lessons and other matter in that splendid lit- 
tle book. No wonder it is so popular. It is the 
only one of her publications which she ever sold, 
as she had strong prejudices against selling the 
Word of God. The lessons in the primer are a 
connected story of the Gospel, but not in the actual 



SCHOLAR, SAINT AND SERVANT 91 

words of the Bible. When I once remarked to 
a young Brahman visitor how unusual it was for 
a mind packed with such solid knowledge and great 
learning as hers to be able to write such pretty 
and even nonsensical songs for children as the 
primer contains, he said that when a door was 
so large, small things could go through as easily 
as big ones, which I thought a delightful answer. 
It was that remarkable combination of great ad- 
ministrative ability and faculty for minute de- 
tail, which in conjunction with her great confi- 
dence in God enabled her to do so much and so 
many different kinds of things. Max Muller said 
she had one of the most remarkable memories in 
the world, and of that we had daily proof to the 
very end. 

Bai was never too busy to be courteous. Few 
things displeased her more than rudeness or un- 
couthness in those who should know better; and 
if her own specially trained elder girls failed in 
good manners to a guest she was grieved to the 
heart. She was gracious without effusion. Her 
fine breeding showed constantly in the simplicity 
of her manners and speech. She never flattered, 
and one could count on her for a sincere opinion. 
She would suffer much discomfort rather than 
hurt anyone's feelings, and I have heard her sigh 
softly for wasted time and aching head after listen- 
ing to volubility hold forth on emptiness. How- 
ever, when there was need she could dismiss people 



92 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

so beautifully that they scarcely knew themselves 
how the tide of their enthralling discourse had been 
stemmed. 

Another most evident trait of Bai's character 
was her profoundly sincere and lovely humility. It 
did not consist of making modest speeches or abas- 
ing herself — nor was she secretly warmed by 
praise. No one who knew her could doubt the 
genuineness of her dislike of adulation. She has 
been known to get up and go suddenly to her room 
— as one involuntarily leaves a suffocating room 
— when the talk turned on herself. 

" I suppose the secret of her bigness, of her glori- 
ous humility, of her power, was that she was so 
wholly given to God, so sold to His will, so ut- 
terly and joyously the bondservant of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, that there was left in her no room for 
self. She wanted nothing for herself — not merely 
was she free from the desire of money and things, 
but from any personal ambition, from any craving 
for fame, or even the love, appreciation and thanks 
of those she served. With all her heart she wanted 
that God be glorified in all things and that His 
Kingdom come. She never tried to attract any- 
one; one felt she would not raise a finger to at- 
tach one to herself. It did not come into her 
mind. She only wanted those who worked with 
her to work for God's glory as she did. To her 
it was an honor and privilege to serve Him at 
Mukti. She had herself deliberately laid aside a 



SCHOLAR, SAINT AND SERVANT 93 

great and unique career for the joy of serving 
her Master's brethren, whether greater, lesser or 
least, she did not care. To her it was a joy — 
high, solemn, heart-lifting joy; and there was no 
choice at all between service at Mukti and some 
lucrative post, a professional career or mere mar- 
riage. These were only commonplaces. I have 
heard her say that if millions of Hindu widows 
could live celibate, just because custom forbade 
them remarriage — even though the first marriage 
had been only nominal — surely it was no great 
thing for Christian women to give up marriage 
for the service of the needy, the afflicted, the 
destitute, and for the bringing in of the Kingdom 
of God. Can the ocean understand the pond? 
And is it strange if the pond sometimes wistfully 
thought the ocean a little unfeeling? And it was 
because she did not seek love that it flowed to her 
as rivers to the sea. She inspired the tenderest 
devotion, the blindest faith, the maddest loyalty. 
It was curious — and yet not really so — that she 
should have been kissed so much when she was 
so unresponsive to merely emotional demonstra- 
tion. I have seen American and European men 
visitors kiss her hand as though she were a queen- 
mother, while for me the dab of cream of top of 
all was the delectable fact that I was kissing the 
Pandita Ramabai Dongre Medhavi, acclaimed 
Sarasvati (Goddess of Wisdom) herself by the 
assembled pundits of Calcutta, greater altogether 



94, PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

than her great international reputation, and one of 
the best and sweetest women that ever Hved." 

This tender tribute is well deserved. We who 
know Ramabai from her first visit to the United 
States can testify to her absolute unselfish na- 
ture, and her rare gifts. Dr. Fleming, in " Build- 
ing With India," speaks for us who knew her 
intimately : — " In the history of the Christian 
Church Pundita Ramabai will stand out as the 
greatest Indian Christian of her generation. In 
her long toilsome pilgrimages, in her arduous 
search through the entire range of Sanscrit litera- 
ture for some satisfying truth, the Church will 
see the impotence of Hinduism taken at its high- 
est. In her remarkable combination of executive, 
intellectual and religious powers, in her great 
work for thousands of India's widows, in her un- 
hesitating loyalty to Jesus Christ and her humble 
service for Him, in what she was, even more than 
what she has done, the world may see what an 
India soul may be when possessed by Christ ! " 



THE AMERICAN RAMABAI 
ASSOCIATION 

President 
MRS. ARTHUR PERRY, Boston. 

Vice-Presiden ts 

REV. HARLAN P. BEACH, D.D., New Haven. 
REV. LYMAN ABBOTT, D.D, New York. 
REV. D. D. ADDISON, D.D., Brookline. 
REV. GEORGE A. GORDON, D.D., Boston. 
REV. ALEXANDER MANN, D.D., Boston. 

Treasurer 
MR. EDGAR C. LINN, 1318 Beacon St., Brookline, Mass. 

Corresponding Secretary 

MISS CLEMENTINA BUTLER, 
Wesleyan Building, Boston. 

Recording Secretary 

MISS ALICE H. BALDWIN, 
233 Fisher Ave., Brookline. 

Managers 

MISS CLEMENTINA BUTLER. 

MISS ANNA H. CHACE. 

MRS. E. C. E. DORION. 

MISS ANTOINETTE P. GRANGER. 

MRS. C. O. DORCHESTER. 

MR. A. M. FRITCHLEY. 

95 



96 PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI 

MISS S. B. RICH. 

MR. HENRY FAIRBANKS. 

MRS. THEODORE S. LEE. 

MRS. JAMES McKEEN. 

MRS. S. W. LEE-MORTIMER. 

MRS. HENRY W. PEABODY. 

MRS. ARTHUR PERRY. 

JULIA MORTON PLUMMER, M.D. 

ARTHUR K. STONE, M.D. 

MRS. W. H. THURBER. 

REV. ROBERT A. HUME, D.D. 

(Ahmednagar, India). 

Executive Committee 

MISS CLEMENTINA BUTLER, Chairman, 

Wesleyan Bldg., Boston. 
MISS ANNA H. CHACE, Providence, R. I. 
MRS. C. O. DORCHESTER, West Newton, Mass. 
MRS. HENRY W. PEABODY, Beverly, Mass. 
MRS. T. S. LEE, Boston, Mass. 
MRS. S. W. LEE-MORTIMER, Boston, Mass. 

Principal of Shardda Sadan and Mukti 
MISS LISSA HASTIE. 



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